Trump: ‘Not much headway’
Little progress as shutdown enters its third week
WASHINGTON — As a partial government shutdown entered its third week, negotiations between Vice President Mike Pence and congressional aides from both parties yielded little progress Saturday as the impact on government services and on federal workers worsens by the day.
“Not much headway made today,” President Donald Trump conceded on Twitter, not long after the vice president’s office characterized the roughly two-hour talks, held next to the White House at the Old Executive Office Building, as “productive.”
The two sides are scheduled to meet again Sunday afternoon, but there was little hope that the broad divide between Trump and Democrats over his demand for more than $5 billion for a border wall would close anytime soon. Saturday’s talks came a day after Trump said the government shutdown could continue for months or even years if Democrats did not relent on their refusal to grant him the money.
The negotiations Saturday focused on priorities for security rather than a dollar figure for the border wall, the vice president’s office said. While Trump has stood by his $5.7 billion demand, Senate Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for border security, including fencing, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, have repeatedly said that they will not agree to any wall funding.
The statement from the vice president’s office said that Pence had reiterated the president’s position that any deal needed to include funding for the wall. The vice president’s office also said that Democrats had requested additional information from the Department of Homeland Security about its needs to deal with border issues.
Democratic staff members asked for a formal budget justification for the administration’s insistence on its $5.7 billion proposal, a Democratic official familiar with the discussion said. The Democrats told the vice president that there would be no movement on the dollar figure until after the government is reopened.
During the talks Saturday, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary, offered a briefing on what the administration has deemed a “crisis” at the border.
In addition to Neilsen, the vice president was joined by Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, and Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump.