Shutdown ending as Democrats relent
UNITED STATES: Congress sped toward reopening the US government yesterday as Democrats reluctantly voted to temporarily pay for resumed operations. They relented in return for Republican as—surances that the Senate will soon take up the plight of young immigrant ‘‘dreamers’’ and other contentious issues.
The vote set the stage for hundreds of thousands of federal workers to return today, cutting short what could have become a messy and costly impasse. The House approved the measure shortly thereafter, sending the spending bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.
But by relenting, the Democrats prompted a backlash from immigration activists and liberal base supporters who wanted them to fight longer and harder for legislation to protect from deportation the 700,000 or so younger immigrants who were brought to the country as children and now are there illegally.
Democrats climbed on board after two days of negotiations that ended with new assurances from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate would consider immigration proposals in the coming weeks. But there were deep divides in the Democratic caucus over strategy, as red-state lawmakers fighting for their survival broke with progressives looking to satisfy liberals’ and immigrants’ demands.
Under the agreement, Democrats provided enough votes to pass the stopgap spending measure keeping the government open until February 8. In return, McConnell agreed to resume negotiations over the future of the dreamers, border security, military spending and other budget debates.
If those talks don’t yield a deal in the next three weeks, McConnell promised to allow the Senate to debate an immigration proposal – even if it was one crafted by a bipartisan group and did not have the backing of the leadership and the White House, lawmakers said. McConnell had previously said he would bring a deal to a vote only if Trump supported it.
Sixty votes were needed to end the Democrats’ filibuster, and the party’s senators provided 33 of the 81 the measure got.
Eighteen senators, including members of both parties, were opposed.
Hours later, the Senate passed the final bill by the same 81-18 vote, sending it to the House, which quickly voted its approval and sent the measure on to Trump.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders predicted that operations would return to normal by today.
The plan is far from what many activists and Democrats hoped for when they decided to use the budget deadline as leverage.
It doesn’t tie the immigration vote to another piece of legislation, a tactic often used to build momentum. It also doesn’t address support for an immigration plan in the House, where opposition to extending the protections for the dreamers is far stronger.
The short-term spending measure means both sides may wind up in a shutdown stalemate again in three weeks.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer lent his backing to the agreement during a speech on the chamber’s floor. ‘‘Now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate,’’ he said of legislation to halt any deportation efforts aimed at the younger immigrants.
The White House downplayed McConnell’s commitment, and said Democrats caved in under pressure. ‘‘They blinked,’’ principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah told CNN. In a statement, Trump said he was open to an immigration deal only if it was ‘‘good for our country’’.
Immigration activists and other groups harshly criticised the deal reached by the Democratic leadership.
Cristina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, said the group’s members were ‘‘outraged’’. She added that senators who voted yesterday in favour of the deal ‘‘are not resisting Trump, they are enablers’’.
Other groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment and shared similar criticisms.
A block of liberal Democrats, some of them 2020 presidential hopefuls, stuck to their opposition.
Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey voted no, as did Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Feinstein said she wasn’t persuaded by McConnell’s assurances, and did not know how a proposal to protect the more than
700,000 younger immigrants would fare in the House.
Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana voted no on the procedural motion to reopen the government – the only no vote among
10 incumbent Democrats facing reelection this year in states won by Trump in 2016.
Tester said in a statement that the 17-day budget did not include any funding for community health centres that were important to his rural state, nor did the deal include additional resources for border security.
The short-term funding measure includes a six-year reauthorisation of the children’s health insurance programme, which provides coverage for millions of young people from families with modest incomes. It also includes US$31 billion in tax cuts, including a delay in implementing a tax on medical devices.