House and Senate Democrats said Monday they will not support a week-long patch to keep the federal government fully operating unless a larger spending deal that doesn’t including funding for a border wall is close to completion.
“The only justification for any extension is if there is a prospect that we would have substantial progress on a bill and would just need a few more days to pass it,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Any other stopgap measure, Pelosi said, would be “just to kick the can down the road,” and Democrats won’t support it.
Republicans, Democrats and White House officials are struggling to find consensus on a spending plan to keep the government funded for the remaining five months of the fiscal year. Funding legislation expires after April 28, after which the government would partially shut down unless Congress passes new legislation.
Democrats and Republicans were on course to complete legislation at or near Friday’s deadline, but talks stalled after Trump administration officials called on the Republican majority to include money for a border wall and to add a provision that would withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities.
“The four parties were negotiating quite well until Donald Trump and the White House threw a monkey wrench into it with a wall that is not only unpopular with Democrats but many Republicans,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was on the same conference call with Pelosi.
Schumer said if President Trump dropped that demand, a long-term deal could pass by Friday.
Trump is not backing down from his push for border wall funding, and tweeted on Monday that the wall “is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)!”
Schumer told reporters he believes the border wall funding should be debated outside of the appropriations legislation in a separate bill.
“We believe the Republican leader should tell Donald Trump we should do this at a later time,” Schumer said.
But Pelosi suggested a bipartisan spending deal could include funding for other border security needs. “Where we have opportunities to protect our border, that is what we will do, north and south,” Pelosi said.
A House Appropriations Committee aide told the Washington Examiner the panel has prepared a stopgap spending bill if Congress cannot pass the extended deal by Friday.
