USA TODAY International Edition
Deal to avoid shutdown reached ‘in principle’
As deadline looms, Trump rallies at border
“We’re talking about serious, serious, serious things, and we hopefull are making some progress.” Sen. Richard Shelby R-Ala., before reaching an agreement “in principle.”
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers negotiating to avoid another government shutdown reached an agreement “in principle” to keep federal agencies open after Friday, when current federal funding is set to expire.
The bipartisan group, which has been in talks since last month, did not provide details of the agreement and did not indicate whether President Donald Trump supports it. It was not immediately clear if the agreement included additional money for border security, as Trump has demanded.
The emerging agreement was announced by a group of lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey, after a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.
The lawmakers announced the deal minutes before Trump was set to take the stage for a political rally in El Paso, Texas – his first since the November midterm election.
“We’re talking about serious, serious, serious things, and we hopefully are making some progress,” Shelby, R-Ala., told reporters earlier at the Capitol after the group met for a second time Monday.
“We both agreed if we can wrap this up to do it tonight, to do it tonight, not go until tomorrow,” Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s top Democrat followed.
A bipartisan group that includes, Shelby, Lowey, Leahy and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been seeking a way out of an impasse over border security and internal enforcement four days before parts of the government are set to shut down again, absent a deal.
On Sunday Shelby had said he saw a “50/50 chance” that the group could come to a deal. But Monday night he said “the odds have improved, but we still have not crystalized it.”
The bipartisan group is part of a bicameral committee of appropriators selected to find a solution that can pass Congress and get support from the president before some of the government’s funding lapses Friday at midnight.
“I don’t think Democrats or Republicans want a shutdown. One option or another, we will resolve this,” Lowey said earlier in the day.
Until this past weekend, the biggest sticking point for the group had been how to deal with the president’s demand for a $5.7 billion wall along the southern border. During the last shutdown, Democrats refused to give him the money, saying the wall would be costly and ineffective.
Last week, they explored a compromise involving some sort of structure, though the figures discussed were far less than Trump’s initial request.
“I think that we expect that if the evidence supports the notion for enhanced fencing moving forward, that we will find some bipartisan consensus,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York said last week.
The president and Shelby expressed optimism about a deal last Thursday.
By Sunday, Shelby was less hopeful. “I think the talks are stalled right now,” Shelby said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that the disagreement centered on Democrats’ demands for a cap on detentions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Democrats said ICE routinely detains more immigrants than it needs to, imprisoning those who don’t have criminal backgrounds and pose no threat to national or domestic security. That’s why they want to set a hard cap on the number of immigrants ICE detains, the goal being to force the agency to focus its resources on violent criminals.
“This agency needs checks and balances, so the Republicans want to get more wall money and Democrats want to get controls on ICE,” said Kerri Talbot of Immigration Hub.
Republicans said a detention cap would force the release of undocumented immigrants in custody and warned of the risk that many might not show up for scheduled hearings on whether they should be deported.
Matthew Albence, deputy director of ICE, said a cap on ICE detainees would be “damaging to public safety.”
In a tweet Monday morning, Trump accused the Democrats of a brand new demand, and he told reporters ICE was “very disrespected by the Democrats.”
House Democrats pointed out that the 16,500 cap on ICE beds has been part of the Democrats’ proposal since their opening offer Jan. 31.
“How the government deals with ICE is a very important issue, and that’s why the beds are so critical to this negotiation, period,” Lowey said.