Schumer pulls offer of $25B in wall funds
Democrats criticized for reopening federal government too soon
WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer on Tuesday pulled back an offer of $25 billion for President Donald Trump’s long-promised southern border wall, as lawmakers scrambled to figure out how to push a deal to protect 700,000 or more so-called Dreamer immigrants from deportation.
Schumer had made the offer Friday in a last-ditch effort to head off a government shutdown, then came scalding criticism from his party’s liberal activist base that Democrats had given up too easily in reopening the government without more concrete promises on immigration.
“We’re going to have to start on a new basis, and the wall offer’s off the table,” Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday.
The shutdown battle — settled mostly on Trump’s terms — complicated the already difficult search for an immigration pact: GOP hard-liners appeared emboldened, while Democrats absorbed withering criticism from progressives. Neither development seemed likely to push the combatants toward the compromises needed to produce a bill that can pass both the tea party-driven House and the more pragmatic Senate.
Still, there were fresh signs of a willingness to keep hunting for a solution, with a flurry of meetings on Capitol Hill,
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he’d been to three meetings Tuesday about immigration. “I do believe that there is a bona fide bipartisan concern about getting this done.”
Even if the Senate can come up with the votes to pass a plan, Democrats fear there is little chance such a bill would gain the support of House Republicans.
Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, called Schumer’s withdrawal of the offer “a step backward.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has committed to trying to reach a deal on immigration and key budget issues by Feb. 8.
“Whoever gets 60 votes wins,” said McConnell.