White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday said that “obviously” President Donald Trump’s administration does not want a congressional battle over government funding to result in a government shutdown.
“Obviously we don’t want the government to shut down, but we want to make sure that we’re funding the priorities of the government,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing.
If Congress fails to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government’s operation for the remainder of the fiscal year before the current bill expires, it will cause a shutdown like the one Republican hardliners forced in 2013 in an unsuccessful attempt to repeal Obamacare.
Spicer said that Trump’s proposed budget “is going to begin a conversation that we will continue to have with the House and Senate.”
“I don’t think both of those goals are mutually exclusive,” he added.
