Republicans and Democrats aiming to pass spending legislation and avoid a government shutdown are still debating increased funding for border security, as well as unrelated measures that could complicate passage, such as taxes.
As for the border, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told reporters on Thursday that Republicans and Democrats were about $900 million apart on funding for border security for 2019. But Republicans also wanted advance funding approved for another $2.5 billion in 2020, potentially avoiding another vote tied to Trump’s much-hyped border wall next year.
Shelby said that the president would sign a funding bill with that provision, and that Trump was key to how negotiations will proceed. “We talk about how do we get our bills passed, satisfy the president, because he is the linchpin,” Shelby said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N.Y., said earlier this week that Democrats could support border security funding of up to $1.6 billion. But Democrats also know their negotiating leverage will increase next year, when control of the House of Representatives flips to them. That may lead to a compromise continuing resolution without other legislative priorities to keep a partial government shutdown from happening while Republicans control both chambers of Congress.
Schumer took to the floor on Thursday afternoon to lay a potential shutdown at Trump’s feet.
“If President Trump wants to throw a temper tantrum and shut down some departments and agencies over Christmas, that’s certainly within his power,” said the Democratic leader.
House Republicans could try to add other provisions to the must-pass legislation in a last-gasp bid to enact law before they lose the majority next year, such as extensions of temporary tax breaks valued by various industries and substantial technical corrections to the GOP-passed tax law, along with other House-passed measures that haven’t been able to get floor consideration in the Senate.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax policy, told reporters that a separate Republican priority, a tax bill expected to pass the House of Representatives tomorrow, would only make its way through the Senate if attached to government funding.
The tax bill faces early opposition from Senate Democrats, despite the fact that it contains several provisions they may support in principle, such as clean energy tax credits and retirement savings reform proposals.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, seized upon the announcement earlier this week of layoffs at General Motors plants in the Midwest to demand a revision to the international taxation provisions of the GOP-passed tax overhaul, a negotiating point he outlined to Trump in a call Wednesday night.
Brown, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, told the Washington Examiner that he would only support end of year tax legislation if it also altered the new tax law to tax overseas corporate income at the 21 percent corporate income tax rate. That would undo a major shift in the law, but Brown indicated he was pushing Democrats to make it a precondition to any other tax changes.
“That needs to part of anything we do,” said the Ohio Democrat. “A lot of Democrats like it, I’m working it.”
In a televised interview on Thursday morning, Brown said Trump was receptive to the idea, as was Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee.
“It continues to be more attractive to do business overseas than it is to do business in the United States, and that needs to change,” said Wyden.
The Oregon Democrat said he’d been in touch with current Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, but voiced frustration with House Republicans for, as he put it, negotiating through the press instead of contacting him directly.
“There are no real negotiations. Negotiations 101 is that the majority contacts the minority,” Wyden said.
Although Shelby objected to adding extraneous legislation to the government funding bill, he acknowledged that Republican leaders may insert their priorities.
“We’re trying to work on the funding, sometimes [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan] add legislation,” said Shelby.
Susan Ferrechio and Katelyn Carralle contributed to this report.
