House Republican plans to quickly pass a short-term spending bill stalled on Thursday after President Trump and conservative GOP lawmakers balked at the lack of funding for a border wall.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called it a “sort of meltdown on the part of the Republicans” and said she wasn’t sure how the rest of the day would unfold.
Republicans canceled their weekly press conference after a contentious closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers Thursday morning.
Lawmakers had hoped to clear the short-term measure for Trump’s signature this afternoon and then leave town for the holiday break. They face a deadline of Friday at midnight to pass the spending measure and prevent a partial government closure of nine agencies.
But Trump’s tweets complaining about the lack of wall funding and his last-minute call Thursday morning with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have left the plans in doubt.
It then turned into an impromptu White House meeting that had some worried Trump was prepared to veto the spending bill unless it included funding for the border wall. Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows were set to attend the noon meeting.
[Read more: Fox News host urges Trump to veto ‘crap’ bill with no wall funding]
Republicans had no clear plans on how to proceed in the meantime. According to Republican aides, the House Rules Committee, which is scheduled to meet today, has not decided how to handle a proposed amendment from House Freedom Caucus leaders to add $5 billion in wall funding to the short-term spending measure.
“It’s still in play,” the GOP aide said.
Aside from the fight over wall funding, lawmakers are also demanding the inclusion of billions of dollars in disaster relief for states impacted by hurricanes and wildfires.
The House would likely have the votes to pass it with the extra money for disaster relief, but it would require a re-vote by the Senate, which approved the short-term spending bill last night. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., kept the Senate in session today, telling lawmakers they needed to stick around in case the House made changes.
But these sorts of changes would make it unlikely to pass the Senate.
The short-term measure currently includes $1.3 billion in border security funding. Democrats won’t back the $5 billion, which virtually guarantees the measure would fail if Republicans decided to tack on the Freedom Caucus amendment.
“That’s a non-starter,” Pelosi said Thursday. “I think they know that.”
Republican leaders have few options. They could bring up a bill that includes the wall funding, which would likely fail thanks to overwhelming Democratic opposition and not enough support from Republicans, who are divided on how to fund the border wall.
GOP leaders could then introduce the stopgap spending bill, which would pass with mostly Democratic support.
