Lawmakers going to Camp David
Mulvaney invites representatives to bipartisan retreat
WASHINGTON — Can the presidential retreat that produced the landmark Camp David Mideast peace accord do anything to help bridge the divides in polarized Washington?
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney isn’t setting any lofty goals, but he’s invited a bipartisan mix of lawmakers to the rustic Maryland campus for an informal get-together this weekend as he tries to build relationships across the aisle.
It’s at least the third time Mulvaney has used the remote complex in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain Park as neutral ground for Washington political figures. He huddled there with Republicans last month after President Donald Trump agreed to the short-term budget deal that reopened the government, and he held a White House staff retreat at the property not long after taking charge.
White House officials stressed the latest gathering had “no agenda,” even as it comes in the midst of the ongoing budget stalemate over Trump’s long-promised border wall. Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, sees the sleepover as an opportunity to build bipartisan relationships.
“Camp David is a perfect setting for the chief of staff to rekindle some old friendships, forge new ones, and have a free exchange of thoughts and ideas between America’s policy makers, regardless of political party,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in statement.
Gidley added in a Fox News interview, “There’s no agenda. There’s no set conversation about border security,” although the issue was sure to come up.
Several members of the committee working to negotiate a border deal are confirmed to attend, including Reps. Tom Graves, R-GA., Chuck Fleischmann, R-tenn., and Henry Cuellar, D-texas.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-KY., will attend the get-together, as will the panel’s top Republican, Steve Womack of Arkansas. Others attending include Republican Reps. Rob Woodall of Georgia and Roger Williams of Texas.
Yarmuth said the getaway was pitched as “a bipartisan group to see if there were bipartisan opportunities moving forward.”