CONGRESS SEEKS DEAL TO AVOID FEDERAL SHUTDOWN
Trump’s demands could make bipartisan accord more difficult
Congress returns Monday WASHINGTON with just five days left to keep the government from shutting down, and President Trump is adding to the pressure by demanding money for a Southwest border wall and other controversial programs that threaten a bipartisan deal.
Lawmakers passed a stop- gap spending bill in December to fund federal agencies through midnight Friday. Congressional leaders are scrambling to reach a bipartisan compromise on new legislation to keep the money flowing through fiscal 2017, which ends on Sept. 30.
They may pass a short- term measure to keep the government funded for a few days or weeks past Friday’s deadline to give themselves more time to negotiate.
“We’re making great progress on funding the government, avoiding a shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader
Charles Schumer, D- N. Y., said in a recent interview with the USA TODAY Network, referring to Senate and House leaders of both parties. “Our worry is that the president will come in and insist on certain things that couldn’t get the support of everybody.”
Among Trump’s demands that could derail Democratic support for a deal: $ 1.4 billion to begin building a wall on the U. S.- Mexico border, $ 18 billion in cuts to domestic programs, stripping funds from Planned Parenthood and allowing states to stop federal grants from going to “sanctuary cities” that protect some undocumented immigrants from deportation. However, Democrats may support at least some of the approximately $ 30 billion that Trump wants to add for defense programs and combat operations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell, R- Ky., said the spending bill “obviously is one that cannot be done by one party alone.”
Schumer said he and McConnell are working well together on the bill, prompting Schumer to tell Mulvaney: “Let us alone and we can get this done.”
However, Mulvaney has warned Congress that lawmakers must include Trump’s priorities if they want the president to sign the bill.
“The president has to sign off on this stuff, so the president gets to have his say,” Mulvaney said in a recent interview with WBT radio in Charlotte.
SPARRING OVER ACA
The feud between Trump and Democrats on the Affordable Care Act also is spilling over into the negotiations.
Democrats are pushing to add a provision to the government funding bill to ensure that federal subsidies owed to health insurance companies under Obamacare are paid so that insurance premiums don’t go up for low- income families. Trump has threatened to withhold the payments to force Democrats to bargain on a health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Tom Cole, R- Okla., who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said he is judging requests for funding by whether they will add votes for the bill and prevent a shutdown. If they don’t, he doesn’t want to see them included even if he personally supports them, Cole told reporters before Congress adjourned for a two- week recess for Passover and Easter.
“For most of this bill, there is agreement,” Cole said. “If we start having people — whether it’s the administration or this or that group within our own ( Republican) conference — that decide they have to have this or that ... I don’t think whatever the potential gain is, is worth the gamble.”