Democrats manoeuvre to end shutdown
WASHINGTON: Democrats in the United States House of Representatives plan to vote on Friday on a funding package to end the 10dayold partial US government shutdown, without providing the $US5 billion ($NZ7.4 billion) President Donald Trump has demanded for a USMexico border wall.
The planned vote sets up a Democratic showdown with Trump’s fellow Republicans on an issue dear to the president on the first day of divided government in Washington since he took office in January 2017 with a Congress led by his own party.
Democrats formally take control of the House from the Republicans after winning a majority of seats in November’s congressional elections.
The twopart Democratic package filed yesterday in the House includes a Bill to keep
funding for the Department of Homeland Security at current levels until February 8 with no new wall funding, as well as a bundle of six measures worth nearly $265 billion combined that would fund the other shuttered agencies through the end of the current fiscal year.
The two parts will be voted on separately on the House floor on Friday (NZ time), the Demo crats, who will hold a 36seat majority, said.
If approved in the House, the funding package would go to the Republicanled Senate. Its prospects there appear unpromising, although Trump’s unpredictability makes it hard to gauge how the shutdown showdown will play out.
‘‘It’s simple: The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign,’’ a spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.
The Democratic legislation will mark the first major battle pitting the incoming Democratic House majority led by Nancy Pelosi against Trump and McConnell.
‘‘While President Trump drags the nation into Week Two of the Trump Shutdown and sits in the White House and tweets, without offering any plan that can pass both chambers of Congress, Democrats are taking action to lead our country out of this mess,’’ Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. — Reuters