Shutdown’s first day brings no sign of deal
Congress in session, but both sides blame each other.
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats showed no signs of ending their standoff over immigration and spending Saturday as Americans awoke to the first day of a government shutdown and Congress staged a weekend session to show voters it was trying to resolve the stalemate.
The closure of many government agencies was a striking display of Washington dysfunction, played out on the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and there was more finger-pointing than signs of bipartisan dealmaking.
Trump made light of the debacle in a tweet that said Democrats “wanted to give me a nice present” to mark the start of his second year in office.
The president spoke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to discuss the next possible steps, while chief of staff John Kelly also worked the phones. White House negotiators, legislative affairs director Marc Short and budget chief Mick Mulvaney, went to Capitol Hill to meet with House Republicans, who emerged holding fast to their stance that they would not negotiate while the government was shuttered.
“It’s like a 2-year-old temper tantrum,” Short told reporters at the White House, where there was a growing sense that the shutdown won’t be quickly resolved.
Right around midnight Friday, Senate Democrats killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders.
Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening government once there’s a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants — known as “Dreamers” — who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children. Each party believes it has a winning political hand, and the day’s first words by party leaders underscored that, so far, neither side believes it is time to give ground.
“The American people cannot begin to understand why the Senate Democratic leader thinks the entire government should be shut down until he gets his way on illegal immigration,” McConnell said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said voters will fault Trump and the GOP. He blamed Trump for reneging on a near deal that Schumer said the two men had approached during a White House meeting Friday.
“Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O,” Schumer said.
Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence.
Democrats said they oppose the three-week plan, viewing it as a way to stall negotiations over the future of the “Dreamers,” whose protections expire in March. Republicans declared they would not reopen talks until the government shutdown ends, a strategy aimed at trying to erode Democratic cohesion.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said Trump had earned an F for “failure in leadership.” She said Republicans are “so incompetent and negligent that they couldn’t get it together to keep the government open.”
The fourth government shutdown in a quarter-century began at the stroke of midnight at the start of a weekend, so many of the immediate effects will be muted for most Americans.
Social Security and most other safety-net programs are unaffected by the lapse in federal spending authority.