Washington: Optimism dies in Senate as closure continues into workweek
WASHINGTON — Congress failed to reach a deal late Sunday to end the federal shutdown, ensuring a third day of disruptions and delays in scores of federal agencies, after Senate leaders could not agree to a bipartisan proposal to reopen the government for the start of the workweek.
Talks are expected to resume Monday, with a Senate vote scheduled for noon, but most federal offices, many national parks and other federal sites will be closed until the stalemate over government funding is resolved.
An estimated 850,000 federal workers may be furloughed or otherwise directly affected, but millions of Americans will be inconvenienced as numerous federal agencies strip back to essential workers and normal operations grind to a halt.
“Talks will continue,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor. “But we have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward that will be acceptable for both sides.”
The setback came despite intense negotiations on Capitol Hill as congressional leaders in both parties searched for an exit ramp. Moderate Republicans and Democrats appeared to rally behind a short-term funding proposal, and the White House signaled possible flexibility on “Dreamers.”
Hopes for a breakthrough grew after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Schumer, who had not spoken for a day, huddled on the Senate floor and met later Sunday to consider the proposal for a three-week temporary funding bill brokered by a bipartisan group of senators.
“The shutdown should stop today,” McConnell said. “Let’s step back from the brink, let’s stop victimizing the American people and get back to work on their behalf.”
But the deal McConnell eventually offered late Sunday — to temporarily fund the government through Feb. 8, with a promise to take up immigration legislation at that time — remained out of reach, for now.
It was either the “Trump shutdown” or the “Schumer shutdown,” depending on whether the finger-pointing came from Republicans backing the president or from Democrats standing with the New York minority leader.
Schumer blamed Republicans, who control the House, Senate and White House, especially after President Trump backed out of a possible agreement. “It all stems from the president, whose inability to clinch a deal has created the Trump shutdown,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he even agreed to put Trump’s request for border wall funds — about $20 billion over several years, sources said — on the table for consideration, a major concession that alarmed other Democrats.
The White House disputed that account, and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Schumer’s recollection “hazy.”
“His account of Friday’s meeting is false,” Sanders said. “The president’s position is clear: We will not negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants while Sen. Schumer and the Democrats hold the government for millions of Americans and our troops hostage.”
However long it lasts, Democrats said Trump’s inconstancy had hurt the chances of staving off the shutdown.
“How can you negotiate with the president under those circumstances where he agrees face to face to move forward with a certain path, and then within two hours calls back and pulls the plug?” asked Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., appearing on ABC’s “This Week.”
Trump, forced to give up his planned weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, spoke to the heads of the Departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to gauge the impact of the shutdown, according to the White House. He took to Twitter to blame Democrats for the impasse and to urge Senate Republicans to change the rules to allow a bill to pass with a simple majority, not the 60 votes now required.
“If stalemate continues,” Trump tweeted, Republicans should use the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and try to pass a long-term spending bill with a simple majority. A spokesman for McConnell later said the nuclear option was not under consideration.
The government spending deadline was midnight Friday, and Democrats and Republicans are stalemated over several issues, but most split over the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump has promised to end by March 5. Known as DACA, it protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.
The federal government has been running on a series of four stopgap funding bills since the 2018 fiscal year began Oct. 1 because Congress cannot agree on budget levels.
Lisa Mascaro is a Tribune Co. writer.