U.S. government shutting down as Senate vote fails
Late negotiations unable to bridge gap
WASHINGTON — The federal government shut down at the stroke of midnight Friday, halting all but the most essential operations and marring the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Last-minute negotiations crumbled as Senate Democrats blocked a four-week stopgap extension in a late-night vote, causing the fourth government shutdown in a quarter century. Behind the scenes, however, leading Republicans and Democrats were already moving toward a next step, trying to work out a compromise to avert a lengthy shutdown.
Since the shutdown began at the start of a weekend, many of the immediate effects will be muted for most Americans. But any damage could build quickly if the closure is prolonged. And it comes with no shortage of embarrassment for the president and political risk for both parties, as they wager that voters will punish the other at the ballot box in November.
Social Security and most other safety net programs are unaffected by the lapse in federal spending authority. Critical government functions will continue, with uniformed service members, health inspectors and law enforcement officers set to work without pay. But if no deal is brokered before Monday, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed.
After hours of closed-door
meetings and phone calls, the Senate scheduled its late-night vote on a Housepassed plan. It gained 50 votes to proceed to 48 against, but 60 were needed to break a Democratic filibuster. A handful of redstate Democrats crossed the aisle to support the measure, rather than take a politically risky vote. Four Republicans voted in opposition.
In an unusual move, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed the roll call to exceed 90 minutes — instead of the usual 20 or so — and run past midnight, seemingly accommodating the numerous discussions among leaders and other lawmakers. Still as midnight passed and the calendar turned, there was no obvious off-ramp to the political stalemate. Each party expressed resolve in its position — and confidence that the other would suffer the wrath of voters.
Even before the vote, Mr. Trump was pessimistic, tweeting that Democrats actually wanted the shutdown “to help diminish the success” of the tax bill he and fellow Republicans pushed through last month. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later termed the Democrats “obstructionist losers.”
Democrats balked on the measure in an effort to pressure the White House to cut a deal to protect “dreamer” immigrants — who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally — before their legal protection runs out in March.
The president watched the results from the White House residence, dialing up allies and affirming his belief that Democrats would take the blame for the shutdown, said a person familiar with his conversations but not authorized to discuss them publicly.
Predictably, both parties moved swiftly to blame one another. Democrats laid fault with Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. Republicans declared Democrats responsible.
Republicans branded the confrontation a “Schumer shutdown” and argued that Democrats were harming fellow Americans to protect “illegal immigrants.”
Mr. Trump had brought Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to the White House Friday afternoon in hopes of cutting a deal. But the two New Yorkers, who pride themselves on their negotiating abilities, emerged without an agreement, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress continued to pass off responsibility.
“We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements,” Mr. Schumer said.
“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” Ms. Sanders said in a statement.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was one of the few Democrats to vote with Republicans. He said he didn’t like the GOP funding bill but that he wanted to avert a shutdown.
“Every time we pass short-term funding, we put our national security at risk, we stall critical projects and throw our economy and citizens into limbo,” he said before the vote. “Governing this way is dangerous to our national security and embarrassing for both political parties.”
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, RPa., voted with nearly all of his GOP colleagues to support the bill. He was not available to comment on Friday but in a tweet he criticized Democrats for jeopardizing the operation of the federal government in order to protect “select illegal immigrants.”
Heand other Republicans accused Democrats of using the bill as leverage to protect “dreamers” from deportation. Dreamers are young immigrants who came into the country illegally as children and who meet eligibility requirements.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s opposition wasn’t just over DACA. In a floor speech, the Pennsylvania Democrat ticked off several flaws he believes are in the bill. Among the bill’s problems, he said, is that it doesn’t fully fund community health centers, veterans programs, coal miners’ pensions, opioid treatment programs and more.
Mr. Casey had pressed his colleagues to fund the government for a few days and keep working through the weekend on a permanent fix, but he lost his fight and blamed Republicans for the shutdown.
Mr. Trump first described his discussion with Mr. Schumer as an “excellent preliminary meeting.”
Mr. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon to attend a fundraiser at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate marking the one-year anniversary of his inauguration but delayed his travel.
A shutdown would be the first since 2013, when Tea Party Republicans — in a strategy not unlike the one Mr. Schumer is employing — sought to use a must-pass funding bill to try to force then-President Barack Obama to delay implementation of his marquee health care law.