Budget battle brews in Congress

President threatens shutdown if the wall isn’t approved

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has warned Congress that he will never sign another foot-tall, $1 trillion-plus government-wide spending bill like the one he did in March. His message to lawmakers in both parties: Get your act together before the next budget lands on my desk.

After a brief government shutdown earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans now agree on the need for budgeting dayto-day operations of government the old-fashioned way. That means weeks of open debate and amendments that empower rankand-file lawmakers, rather than concentrating power in the hands of a few leaders meeting in secret.

Even the most optimistic predictions are for only a handful of the 12 annual spending bills to make it into law by Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. The rest may get bundled together into a single, massive measure.

The worst-case scenario? A government shutdown a month before Election Day, Nov. 6, as Republicans and Democrats fight for control of the House and possibly the Senate. Trump wants for more money for his border wall with Mexico.

“We need the wall. We’re going to have it all. And again, that wall has started. We got $1.6 billion. We come up again (in) September,” Trump said last month. “If we don’t get border security ... we’ll close down the country because we need border security.”

A $1.3 trillion spending bill swept through Congress in March.