While President Trump stormed out of the last spending deal huddle and has spent the last several days publicly berating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a bipartisan group of congressional leaders plans to catch up with White House officials this week to try to reach an agreement.
Notably absent from the meetings? President Trump.
According to congressional and administration officials who spoke to Politico, congressional leadership intends to meet with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought at some point this week. Pelosi, along with the House minority leader and the majority and minority leaders for the Senate will be in attendance.
While both sides have tried to quietly get spending negotiations back on track after President Trump’s outburst in May, White House officials are reportedly not hopeful they’ll reach a deal with Democrats.
“Unless Democrats show a willingness to negotiate and come off their unrealistic and unaffordable spending increases, then these meetings are just summer theater and things won’t change much,” an administration official told Politico. Republicans are reportedly most eager to reach a compromise in order to avoid $125 billion in cuts to the military and domestic spending that’ll take place if a plan isn’t reached.
