Shutdown looking unlikely
WASHINGTON — Buoyed by the sudden likelihood of a budget pact, lawmakers are on track avoid a repeat of last month’s government shutdown — though President Donald Trump unexpectedly raised the possibility of closing things down again if he can’t have his way on immigration.
“I’d love to see a shutdown if we can’t get this stuff taken care of,” Trump declared Tuesday.
Trump’s comments were strikingly disconnected from the progress on Capitol Hill, where the House passed a shortterm spending measure Tuesday night and Senate leaders were closing in on a larger, long-term pact ahead of a Thursday night deadline. The broader agreement would award whopping spending increases to both the Pentagon and domestic federal programs, as well as approve overdue disaster-relief money and, perhaps, crucial legislation to increase the government’s borrowing limit and avoid possible default.
The result could be the return of trillion-dollar deficits for the first time since President Barack Obama’s first term.
Democratic leaders have dropped their strategy of using the funding fight to extract concessions on immigration, specifically on seeking extended protections for the “Dreamer” immigrants who have lived in the country illegally since they were children. Instead, the Democrats prepared to cut a deal that would reap tens of billions of dollars for other priorities — including combatting opioids — while taking their chances on solving the immigration impasse later.
Tuesday night’s 245182 House vote, mostly along party lines, set the machinery in motion. The six-week stopgap spending bill contains increases for the military that long have been demanded by Trump and his GOP allies. But the measure appears increasingly likely to be rewritten by the Senate to include legislation implementing the brewing broader budget pact.
Among area lawmakers, Republicans Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington, Bob Gibbs of Lakeville, Jim Jordan of Urbana and Bill Johnson of Marietta voted for the bill, while Democrats Joyce Beatty of Columbus and Tim Ryan of Niles opposed it.
The budget negotiations have intensified in recent days, with the looming government shutdown at midnight Thursday adding urgency.
“I think we’re on the way to getting an agreement and getting it very soon,” Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.
The stopgap bill would keep the government open through March 23 to allow time to write and pass detailed follow-up “omnibus” legislation to fund the government through Sept. 30.
Prospects for dealing with immigration, however, were as fuzzy as ever. The Senate is slated next week to begin a debate to address the dilemma of immigrants left vulnerable by the looming expiration of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
On Tuesday, White House chief of staff John Kelly threw fuel on the dispute as he defended Trump’s proposed solution. The retired general noted the White House proposal would expand protection for some 1.8 million immigrants. That group includes both the 690,000 currently shielded and also “the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn’t sign up,” he said.
Immigration experts say reasons why people eligible for protections under DACA do not apply include lack of knowledge about the program, a worry that participating will expose them to deportation and an inability to afford registration fees.