Spending talks seen advancing
Trump tweets to the contrary
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday railed against Democrats’ spending demands and complained about threats of a government shutdown, even as GOP leaders in Congress neared a deal with Democrats to keep the lights on past today’s budget deadline.
In a series of tweets, Trump accused Democrats of threatening to shut down the government over a refusal to back spending increases for defense and border security, despite indications that Democrats already have signed off on a GOP request for those funds. The midmorning tweet storm suggests that Trump hopes to claim credit for an eventual deal or blame Democrats if that deal falls apart today or next week.
“I promise to rebuild our military and secure our border. Democrats want to shut down the government. Politics!” Trump tweeted. “As
families prepare for summer vacations in our National Parks — Democrats threaten to close them and shut down the government. Terrible!”
Democrats dismissed the outburst as not in sync with the talks. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that the negotiations remain on track, despite Trump’s public complaints and the fact that Democrats support many of the policies listed among Trump’s complaints, including funding health care benefits for coal miners.
“It was out of touch with reality,” Schumer said of Trump’s tweets. “If there’s a shutdown, it falls on their shoulders. I think they know that.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed. Referring to Republicans, she said: “They have the majority. They have the president. They have the Senate. They have the House. Any shutting down of government, the ball is in their court.”
The sudden flare-up came as a surprise to negotiators in Congress who have been working around the clock to finalize a spending agreement, including introducing a stopgap spending bill late Wednesday to allow negotiations to continue through May 5. Congressional leaders have not yet scheduled a vote on that measure, but aides said they expect it to pass without controversy and with time to spare before today’s deadline.
The short-term spending measure comes as negotiators are nearing an agreement on a budget to increase military spending and border security, and keep the government open through the end of September.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pressed for an agreement on the short-term legislation, giving lawmakers more time to complete negotiations on a $1 trillion governmentwide spending bill for the remainder of the 2017 budget year.
Schumer insisted that any vote occur only when Republicans abandon efforts to add provisions on abortion, financial regulations and the environment to the legislation.
“Our position has been clear, and it’s nothing new. No poison-pill riders,” Schumer said.
Leaders in both parties projected certainty that a deal ultimately would be reached on the spending legislation, which covers all government agencies and is leftover business from last year.
“Talks on government funding legislation have continued throughout the week on a bipartisan, bicameral basis,” said McConnell, R-Ky., adding that the short-term extension will allow time for a final agreement to be completed and voted on next week.
EXTENSION NO SURPRISE
The decision to begin work on a short extension, known as a continuing resolution, is no surprise: The final steps of a spending deal could drag on beyond today’s deadline, and congressional leaders are eager to minimize the threat of a shutdown, according to aides familiar with the talks.
“I am optimistic that a final
funding package will be completed soon,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. “It is time that this essential work is completed so that critical programs and activities — including national defense — are properly and adequately funded for the year.”
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers had made “substantial progress” on a spending agreement covering the rest of the fiscal year.
“Let’s pass this new continuing resolution,” Cochran said, “and make good use of this extra time to enact overdue legislation to provide for national defense and meet our country’s needs.”
White House officials notified lawmakers earlier in the day Thursday that Trump abandoned a threat to end subsidy payments under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a concession to Democrats that is expected to clear the way for a bipartisan budget agreement.
Trump had threatened to cut off the subsidies to force Democrats to pay for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, a fight that became less serious after Republicans withdrew their border wall request this week.
“It is good that once again the president seems to be backing off his threat to hold health care and government funding hostage,” Schumer said. “Like the withdrawal of money for the wall, this decision brings us closer to a bipartisan agreement to fund the government and is good news for the American people.”
The pair of GOP concessions lessens chances that the government will shut down this weekend, but a number of smaller issues must be resolved before a spending deal can be finalized, according to several congressional aides involved in the talks.
Democrats have refused to sign off on several GOP-written policy provisions, known as riders, including those that would restrict abortion access under the Affordable Care Act and end Wall Street regulations passed under President Barack Obama.
Republicans have not indicated how they plan to handle the policy provisions, but most GOP negotiators said they were pleased with the direction of the negotiations, despite allowing Democrats victories on the border wall and health care.
“Now we’re making progress — we’re not there yet,” said Schumer. “I think there’s been a real desire, I give leader McConnell credit. I think he had a real desire to get this done. And unfortunately the president stood in the way for quite a long time. So that’s why we’re a little delayed.”
A new wrinkle emerged as Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, threatened to withhold votes for the shortterm spending bill if Republicans tried to push for a vote this week on a revived health care repeal.
“If Republicans announce their intention to bring their harmful ‘TrumpCare’ bill to the House Floor tomorrow or Saturday, I will oppose a oneweek continuing resolution and will advise House Democrats to oppose it as well,” Hoyer said in a statement.
Criticizing the repeal legislation, Hoyer said Republicans were “trying to jam it through the House before their members can hear from the American people this weekend about their opposition to this horrible legislation.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Republicans were “making very good progress” on the repeal legislation, but no decision had been made regarding a vote. He brushed off the threat from Democrats.
“I would be shocked that they would want to see a government shutdown,” Ryan said.
The spending bill is expected to include several White House priorities, such as increases in border security and defense spending, including an unspecified amount to repair fencing and new surveillance technology to patrol the nearly 2,000-mile border, the aides said. Democrats have said they support increased border security as long as no money goes toward building a physical wall.
Information for this article was contributed by Kelsey Snell of
The Washington Post; by Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor, Kevin Freking and Alan Fram of The Associated Press; and by Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times.