President Donald Trump—after first urging Republican lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and then later arguing that there was, in fact, no point in pursuing such a bill until after November’s midterm elections—is now threatening to shut down the government if Congress does not fund the construction of his border wall and overhaul the immigration system in its next round of spending legislation.
Congressional Republicans, for their part, are taking the president’s latest rhetoric with a grain of salt.
“The wall is important,” remarked Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Richard Shelby, “but it’s just a small part of the overall funding.”
Trump tweeted over the weekend that he “would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT!” He repeated his intentions during an appearance on Monday afternoon. “If we don’t get border security after many, many years of talk within the United States, I would have no problem doing a shutdown,” said Trump.
It is not new for the White House to threaten a government shutdown over wall funding. But Trump’s public split with Congress may be particularly frustrating as lawmakers—in a rare step—have sought to put forward a number of appropriations packages through regular order. The effort came after Trump vowed not to sign massive omnibus funding measures in the future as he grudgingly approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill in the spring. Despite Trump’s recent comments, Republican leaders are proceeding as planned. “I’m optimistic we can avoid a government shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim on Monday.
Republicans plan to fund much of the government by September 30, passing stopgap measures for outstanding items and leaving the most controversial debates, such as border security, unresolved until after the midterms. The House has passed 6 of 12 appropriations bills, whereas the Senate has passed 3 appropriations measures and is likely to approve an additional 4 more this week. When members of the House return to Washington after five weeks spent in their districts during the month of August, lawmakers from both chambers will huddle to work out their differences in each spending bill before passing finalized versions. (For instance, the House has allocated Trump’s full request of $5 billion for the construction of Trump’s desired wall along the southern border, whereas the Senate has landed on a much lower number, around $1.6 billion.)
On Monday, most senators expressed hope that Trump’s renewed calls for Congress to solve the intractable immigration debate wouldn’t undo everything appropriators have been working towards for months. Speaking about Trump’s demands, Majority Whip John Cornyn was especially skeptical. “We’ve had a vote on some of those and they didn’t pass, and so I don’t know anything that’s change on any of those,” the Texas Republican told reporters.
Others pointed to the legislative branch’s responsibility to keep the government up and running. “Whether you’re Democrat or Republican, it behooves us to fund the government, to do our jobs, because at the end of the day we’re accountable to the American people,” Senator Shelby said Monday night. Asked if he thought there would be enough support within Congress to override a potential veto from the White House in order to keep the federal lights on, Shelby took a moment to consider. “I believe there’d be a lot of strong support on both sides to keep the government open,” he answered. “No one wins on that.”
Does the Appropriations chairman have any advice for the president?
“Advice? I don’t give the president advice,” Shelby responded, before offering advice to the president. “I would just tell the president . . . that we’re working hard to do our jobs, to fund the government before October the first,” the Alabama Republican said. “And I would hope he would work with us.”
There have been two lapses in spending under Trump—first on January 20, 2018, and briefly in the early morning hours of February 9. In both instances, members of Congress were quick to play the blame game. This time, if Trump follows through on his tweets, the president has preemptively claimed responsibility. Still, some of the his allies are ready to point to Democrats as the true culprits. “We’re going to try and prevent it. It’s really going to be up to the Democrats,” said North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis. And Georgia Republican David Perdue argued such a failure would be “all of our faults.”
“Congress needs to get in here and wrestle with the issues,” he said. “This is a national security issue.”
