WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders are looking to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown next week and keep the government’s doors open through Dec. 22.
With the additional time, the GOP hopes talks with Democrats over spending and immigration could produce a longer-term agreement into January of next year. Leaders want a bipartisan agreement on spending increases for the Pentagon and domestic agencies, whose budgets otherwise would be frozen.
The government’s spending runs out a week from Friday, with little time for negotiations.
Battles over immigration and President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall could still threaten to spark a government shutdown, either just before Christmas or in January.
But the emerging scenario represents progress of sorts after a tit-for-tat battle on Tuesday between Trump and top Capitol Hill Democrats scotched a White House meeting slated to discuss the crush of year-end business. Both sides want to give negotiations another chance to produce an agreement with wins for Republicans and Democrats alike.
“We’re going to give it space and time. We’re going to see if they can resolve something,” said North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key GOP leadership strategist. “And that will determine what Dec. 22 looks like.”
A key unresolved issue involves legislation to protect immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose protected status is set to lapse in March. Trump backs the idea despite issuing an executive order reversing the Obama administration protections, officially called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, starting next spring.
Democrats want the issue resolved this year, but GOP leaders — facing many rank and file lawmakers opposed to the idea — aren’t in any hurry.
Conservatives oppose drawing in the immigration issue to legislation to keep the government running. The Trump White House is pressing to address other issues such as the wall and new funding for immigration enforcement.
“Do we have to have a DACA solution? Yes we do. The deadline’s March,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “But if they want to get to a solution they ought to come to the table and start talking.”
House Democrats — whose votes will be needed to pass any omnibus spending bill next year — say they won’t supply votes to keep the government open in the near term unless the immigration issue is resolved.
“The Republicans have the majority in the House and the Senate and the White House. The responsibility to keep government open is theirs in the majority, and it’s up to them to keep government open,” Pelosi told reporters.
But Senate Democrats, who have the power to block any stopgap spending measure, aren’t taking as hard a line. For starters, their ranks are filled with incumbents facing re-election next year in states carried by Trump, and most of the senators in that group aren’t eager to cast a vote that could make it look like they’re shutting the government down over DACA.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been given several opportunities to draw a line in the sand over DACA but hasn’t, at least not yet.
“There is good bipartisan support and we believe DREAM will get done by the end of the year,” Schumer said, referring to the so-call DREAM Act, legislation sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would allow the younger immigrants, many of whom have only known America as their home, to become U.S. citizens.
Ryan also said the House Appropriations Committee and members from the Texas and Florida delegations, whose states were hard-hit by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, are working together to redraw the White House’s recent $44 billion disaster aid request. The powerful delegations want to add money for housing, agricultural aid, and water and flood control projects, while Democrats are determined to add billions of dollars for Puerto Rico.
“Let’s just say there was a level of dissatisfaction with these delegations with the (White House) submission,” Ryan told reporters. “And so, we have asked the appropriators to get together with these delegations to discuss the disaster supplemental and work with them.”
Pelosi and Schumer pulled out of Tuesday’s meeting with Trump after he attacked them on Twitter.
How long have these clowns had to solve this problem. What makes them thing another three weeks is going to make a difference?
Y’all just keep kicking that can down the road; what could possibly go wrong? I always dreamed of living in a banana republic.
Josh, please stop wasting hard earned money and valuable news space, and dump the AP feed already.
Many news organizations, particularly NYT and WAPO, seem to be serious about making amends for their foolish gullibility and journalistic malpractice last year and in some cases (NYT) back to the start of Clinton/Obama Derangement Syndrome.
But AP happily continues to churn out its consistent false-equivalence drivel day in and day out and uses its historic reach and credibility to foist this crap on the public in publications large and small across the world.
What set me off in this article is the “Democrats scorched a White House meeting” line. (Because I suppose the polite and correct thing to say in response to Trump’s Twitter scorching of them would have been “Thank you sir may I have another?”). But it’s just one example of the consistent tone of every AP article on this administration - that no matter how unprecedented and disgusting and dangerous our lying eyes tell us things are, we have to act like everything is normal and sane and ok. Because we have to be nice and play “fair.”
Josh, if this site really seeks to differentiate itself from that kind of nonsense masquerading as journalism, its time to call BS and pull the plug on the AP.
all good points magician, I urge you to write the same to the mainstream media outlets of your choice - they need to know you’re paying attention
As predicted, there is simply too much on their plates, for Ryan to get anything done. The telling point here is, he knows he can’t pass another CR with just republican votes, yet at the same time, he is outright lying and berating the Democrats he needs to get on board to buy him time.
There is no DACA plan. There is no CHIP plan. Hell, there is no budget plan. Ryan broke every promise in the Ryan-Murray framework this past year and passed no appropriations bill by regular order. So instead he just shoved through a CR that is coming due soon, and he wants ANOTHER extension on that for a few weeks, so he can ask for ANOTHER extension on that for another month.
Now the Dems have very real issues that they want Ryan to deal with, and the HFC is growing increasingly angry with this “kick the can” approach. Ryan is about to squeezed hard from both sides.
Oh yeah…and he has the presidential buffoon making comments that he WANTS a government shutdown.