President Trump and congressional Democrats have postponed a meeting about this week’s spending deadline due to the death of President George H.W. Bush, who will lie in state in the Capitol this week.
The delay is a sign Congress is likely to pass a short-term funding extension for departments whose funding will expire after Friday, including the Department of Homeland Security.
President Bush will arrive at the Capitol on Monday afternoon, and he will lie in state until Wednesday. As a result, the House and Senate are holding off on regular business until some time after that, leaving them little time to wrap up and pass a big spending bill for DHS and other departments.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had planned a sit-down Tuesday with Trump to discuss a deal on funding a large portion of the federal government ahead of a Dec. 7 deadline. A Senate Democratic aide said the meeting will now take place next week.
Trump is trying to get up to $5 billion to pay for the construction of a southern border wall, but Democrats don’t want to spend any more than $1.6 billion.
[Related: Trump claims border wall will actually save money]
