House Democrats move quickly to end shutdown.
No funds approved for the border wall; Trumps vows veto
The newly Democratic-controlled House on Thursday passed the first part of a legislation package that would reopen the federal government without paying for President Donald Trump’s border wall, drawing a swift veto threat from the White House and leaving the partial shutdown no closer to getting resolved.
Democrats also passed a measure that would provide stopgap funding for the Department of Homeland Security, reopening the department but denying Trump the more than $5 billion he’s demanding for a wall along the U.S.Mexico border.
The House was expected to approve another set of bills Thursday evening that would reopen other federal agencies that have been closed since the partial shutdown began Dec. 22.
The measures would need support from the Senate and the president’s signature to end the shutdown, but Trump has promised a veto and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated Thursday that the Senate will only take up government spending legislation that Trump supports.
Despite the broad GOP opposition, two Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in 2020 broke with Trump and party leaders, saying it was time to end the impasse even if Democrats won’t approve border funding.
The comments from Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine — the only Senate Republicans running for re-election in states Trump lost — pointed to cracks within the GOP that could grow as the shutdown nears the two-week mark.
McConnell’s stance prompted angry attacks Thursday from new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats, who insisted they were trying to give Republicans a way out of the standoff by passing two pieces of legislation: one a package of six spending bills that were negotiated on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and would reopen nearly all the federal agencies that have been shuttered since before Christmas, and the second a stopgap spending bill through Feb. 8 covering only the Department of Homeland Security.
The strategy could allow Senate Republicans to reopen most of the government while setting aside the debate over the border wall. But thus far, because of Trump’s opposition, party leaders have refused.
“What we’re asking the Republicans in the Senate to do is to take ‘yes’ for an answer. We are sending them back exactly, word for word, what they have passed,” Pelosi said. “Why would they not do that? Is it because the president won’t sign it? Did they not hear about the coequal branch of government, and that we the Congress send the president legislation and he can choose to sign or not?”
McConnell on Thursday restated the stance he has adopted since the Senate unanimously passed a short-term spending bill last month without additional wall funding — only to watch as Trump turned against it the very next morning amid a conservative backlash.
“I’ve made it clear on several occasions, and let me say it again: The Senate will not take up any proposal that does not have a real chance of passing this chamber and getting a presidential signature. Let’s not waste the time,” McConnell said.
Nevertheless, Trump showed no sign Thursday that he was going to budge.
A veto threat issued by the White House against the House bills read: “The Administration is committed to working with the Congress to reopen lapsed agencies, but cannot accept legislation that provides unnecessary funding for wasteful programs while ignoring the Nation’s urgent border security needs.”
Trump himself made an appearance in the White House briefing room, where, flanked by members of the union for Border Patrol agents, he said he has “never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance on border security ... and for, frankly, the wall, or the barrier.”
“Without a wall you cannot have border security,” Trump continued. “It won’t work.”
Top congressional leaders plan to meet with Trump at the White House Friday, in a repeat of a meeting they had on Wednesday. But so far there are no signs of a breakthrough or any movement.