The threat of a partial government shutdown remained unresolved after top Republican senators met with President Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon to discuss a quickly approaching December 7 deadline.
Trump wants $5 billion included in this year’s Homeland Security spending bill to go toward the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House has put forward that amount in its appropriations bill, but leaders in the Senate were able to strike a deal offering $1.6 billion, which Democrats say should be enough.
“The Democrats and Republicans came to the $1.6 billion agreement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a press conference Wednesday, arguing that the bill provides for “tough security” through measures such as sensors and drones. “We believe Democrats and Republicans should stick with their agreement and not let President Trump interfere,” said Schumer. “Every time he interferes, it gets bollixed up.”
Democrats are unlikely to bend on the issue any further, and their votes are needed to pass the legislation due to the chamber’s 60-vote threshold for most bills. (Republicans currently have 51 members in the Senate.)
Republicans had staved off Trump’s threats of shutting down the government before the election and were able to pass funding for about 75 percent of the government, and stopgap funding for the rest. Seven appropriations bills have yet to be passed, including those for a number of departments and a handful of agencies such as NASA.
The remaining seven bills may be combined into a larger spending package, and it remains possible that Congress could pass a brief stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown as negotiators seek more funding for the president’s wall, though it is unclear whether Trump would sign such a bill.
Trump appears undeterred by the circumstances, telling the Daily Caller in an interview this week that he “may very well be willing to shut down the government” over the matter. He met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and appropriations chairman Richard Shelby on Thursday afternoon. Shelby emerged from the meeting without a commitment from Trump to keep the government funded.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, I want to fund the government,’” the Alabama Republican told reporters afterward. “He didn’t say, ‘I’m going to keep the government open.’ We didn’t ask him that question… We talked about avoiding a shutdown,” said Shelby. “He seemed to agree with that.”
Trump has made and retreated from similar threats in the past. If he were to veto government funding over the issue this time around, it would mark the third shutdown of his presidency.
Trump may be motivated by the results of last week’s midterm election, which will further stymie his ability to pass Republican policy priorities come January, when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives.
A number of other outstanding questions remain; Democrats have recently discussed fighting to add a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the funding package, and Pat Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, has indicated that Democrats may call for new disaster relief funding in response to wildfires raging in California and recent hurricanes.
Still, McConnell is sounding bullish.
“We had a good discussion about funding the government and the other sort of end-of-year items, and we’re optimistic we’re going to be able to get that done, get the farm bill done and move on toward the conclusion of the session,” McConnell told reporters after Thursday’s meeting at the White House.
“We talked about border security, and how to resolve all this, and we’re optimistic we have a way forward,” the Kentucky Republican said, according to Roll Call’s Niels Lesniewski. “And I’ll tell you when we get it.”
