DONALD TRUMP, United States president
US Senate will likely change it and send it back to House
“I would love to see a shutdown if we do not get this stuff (immigration legislation) taken care of.”
THE House of Representatives on Tuesday approved another stopgap bill to keep the Federal Government from shutting down, hours after President Donald Trump said he would “love” to see a shutdown if immigration legislation were not included.
In a further sign of the Republican-controlled Congress’ inability to get its most basic work done, the House, in a 245-182 vote, passed and sent to the Senate a temporary spending bill to extend most agency funding until March 23.
It was the fifth such stopgap of the federal fiscal year, which began on Oct 1.
Stopgaps are needed when Congress fails to approve a full budget on time by that date. Congress has passed its spending bills on time in only four of the past 40 years, according to congressional researchers.
The Senate was expected to take up the House bill yesterday and likely change it, requiring it to go back to the House for further action, to get a finished bill to Trump for his signature by today.
As a result of the time crunch, Democrats cancelled a retreat to Maryland’s eastern shore that they had planned from yesterday to tomorrow, and said they would talk strategy at the US Capitol instead.
The House bill does not contain changes to immigration law, which were a key point of contention in a partisan standoff that led to a three-day partial shutdown last month.
Senate Democrats were expected to balk at the House’s bill’s inclusion of an increase in Pentagon funding through Sept 30, the end of the current fiscal year, but exclusion of any increase in non-defence spending.
Republicans and Democrats said they were making progress, however, on a budget deal that would set new, higher spending limits for defence and non-defence programmes.
Last month’s shutdown came after lawmakers failed to reach agreement on contentious budget and immigration issues.
“I would love to see a shutdown if we do not get this stuff taken care of,” Trump said at the White House.
The White House later clarified that it did not expect the budget deal to include specifics on immigration.
A broad budget deal could end the brinkmanship over spending that roils Washington so regularly that financial markets barely flinch anymore at the threat of a government shutdown.
“I am optimistic that soon, we will be able to reach an agreement,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at Capitol Hill.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said an agreement being forged would increase funding for domestic programmes, like drug treatment and broadband infrastructure, that Democrats want, as well as a military spending increase sought by Republicans.