Shutdown looms as GOP seeks short-term plan
Lawmakers disagree on immigration with just days left before funding set to expire
Lawmakers clash over immigration, and a top House Democrat refuses to guarantee Democratic votes to keep the government open, racheting up chances for a shutdown at week’s end.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers clashed over immigration Tuesday, and a top House Democrat refused to guarantee Democratic votes to keep the government open, ratcheting up chances for a shutdown at week’s end.
“We don’t want to shut down the government; we never want to,” said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “We want to keep the government open, but I will repeat: We’re not going to be held hostage to do things we think are contrary to the best interest of the American people.”
Hoyer declined to say definitively if Democrats would oppose a short-term spending bill Republicans are expected to offer ahead of Friday’s deadline for government funding to expire. But he said Democrats did not want to vote in favor of a fourth short-term bill that continues existing agency spending levels, absent an agreement for a broader two-year funding deal and a solution for immigrant youths.
A deal on so-called “Dreamers” looked even more remote as senators on the Judiciary Committee grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the meeting last Thursday where President Donald Trump used a derrogatory phrase to describe Haiti and African countries.
She said she didn’t recall him uttering the phrase in question.
Required wall?
And in a new wrinkle that could only complicate talks further, the administration appeared to boost its demands for funding for Trump’s border wall. The administration recently made public a request for $18 billion over 10 years for the wall, which Democrats rejected with outrage.
But on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., suggested Trump asked for even more during last Thursday’s meeting, where Durbin and Nielsen both were present.
“Do you remember the president saying he wanted $20 billion now and he would build that wall within one year?” Durbin asked Nielsen.
“I do remember him saying that,” Nielsen replied. “I remember him asking is there any way to authorize the full down pay- ment of the wall such that we could have assurances that we could in fact build it.”
According to a senior administration official, who demanded anonymity to speak freely, Trump wants Congress to fully authorize all of the wall money in exchange for a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That’s not a deal any Democrat would take given their opposition to Trump’s wall.
DACA was created by the Obama administration to grant work permits and short-term deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the country as kids, but Trump has announced he will end the program completely by early March absent congressional action, and already some of the 690,000 protected immigrants are losing their permits.
Aides to key negotiators from both parties were meeting Tuesday in an effort to rekindle budget talks, setting up a Wednesday meeting of the leaders themselves. If they cannot agree, the government would shut down at midnight Friday. It would be the first shutdown since 2013.
House Republican leaders are scheduled to discuss their plans for a stopgap spending measure with rank-and-file lawmakers Tuesday evening.
Leverage for Democrats
Democratic leaders are demanding that protections for the Dreamers be part of any spending deal. They have the leverage to do so because Senate Republicans would need at least nine Democratic votes to support any funding measure. Democrats also want Republicans to match military spending that Trump and many GOP lawmakers are seeking with an equal increase in nondefense funding.
“If they need Democratic votes, the overall legislation needs to meet certain Democratic criteria and be reflective of the values of the Democratic caucus and what we believe are the values of the American people,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley, N.Y., the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
There is also no guarantee that House GOP leaders will be able to rally a majority of their members to support a shortterm spending measure, which multiple congressional aides and a senior Trump administration official said would probably last through mid-February.
Defense hawks, in particular, are livid at further delaying a planned boost in military funding. That could mean House Republicans would also need Democratic votes to pass a shortterm deal.
One option Republicans are strongly considering to win over Democrats, according to two aides familiar with the GOP’s planning, is attaching a longterm renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program to the stopgap. Republicans believe that many Democrats — especially senators seeking re-election this year — will have a tough time voting against the program, which they deem a top priority.
On Capitol Hill, however, there are hopes that tensions will ease as the shutdown deadline approaches. The government last shut down in October 2013, when Republicans opposed to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul demanded its defunding. Government offices closed, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees were furloughed for two weeks before the GOP relented.
Last week’s Oval Office meeting went off the rails when Trump angrily rejected a tentative deal negotiated among a small bipartisan group of senators — one that did not include any Republicans who support the strong restrictions Trump favors.
That deal would offer Dreamers an eventual path to U.S. citizenship in return for border security funding, including some that could be used to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall for which Trump campaigned. It would end rules that allow Dreamers who become citizens to sponsor their parents for legal status in the U.S.The deal also would curb a diversity lottery system that grants visas to 55,000 people from countries with low immigration each year. But Trump wants even stronger restrictions.
The ‘No. 2s’
On Tuesday, Trump appeared to dig in over his demands for a “great wall.”
“We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!” Trump tweeted.
GOP aides believe that a group of four deputy leaders from both chambers — the “No. 2s,” as they are being called on Capitol Hill, including Durbin, Hoyer, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — is more likely to produce a workable immigration accord, which would then unlock an agreement on spending levels and other outstanding issues.
“At the end of the day, if something’s going to be produced that can pass both chambers and get signed by the president, it’s going to come from this group,” said a Republican familiar with the talks but not authorized to comment on them publicly.
But even if the leaders are able to make progress in the coming days, lawmakers and aides say another temporary spending measure — the fourth since the fiscal year began Oct. 1 — will be necessary to keep the government open past Friday.
“Even if we had a deal, which we don’t, there’s no time left to draft it,” said a senior Senate Republican aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.