Senate drama ends in government shutdown
Late vote on short-term funding bill comes up short
WASHINGTON — Congress failed to avert the first federal government shutdown in more than four years Friday after senators rejected a temporary spending patch and bipartisan efforts to find an alternative fell short at the midnight deadline. The vote failed 50-49. Republican and Democratic leaders both said they would continue to talk, however, raising the possibility of a solution over the weekend.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the conflict has a “really good chance” of being resolved before government offices open Monday, suggesting that the shutdown’s impacts could be limited.
Still, both parties remained at odds as they each confronted major political risks with 10 months to go until the midterm elections.
Republicans, who hold the White House and both congressional majorities, resolved not to submit to the minority party’s de-
mands to negotiate, while Democrats unified to use the shutdown deadline to force concessions on numerous issues — including protections for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants.
The standoff culminated in a late-night Senate vote that failed to clear a 60-vote hurdle, sending congressional leaders and President Donald Trump back to the starting line after days of political posturing on all sides.
The White House says it will not negotiate with the Democrats on immigration until the end of the federal government shutdown.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that, “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands.”
She added, “When Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform.”
The early contours of the blame game appeared to cut against Trump and the Republicans, who control all levers of government but cannot pass major legislation without at least partial support from Senate Democrats. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, Americans said by a 20-point margin that they would blame a shutdown on Trump and the GOP rather than Democrats.
Republicans started the day eager to show a united front: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell met Friday morning, determined to hold firm to a strategy they had crafted nearly a week prior: Make Democrats an offer they could not refuse by attaching a long-term extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, as well as the delay of some unpopular health care taxes.
If they did refuse, the leaders believed, the public backlash would be intense — particularly in states where vulnerable Democratic senators are seeking reelection in November.
McConnell delivered a morning salvo on the Senate floor, declaring that Democrats had been led into a “box canyon” by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.
But by midday, McConnell’s strategy threatened to be upended by Trump — who phoned Schumer and invited him to the White House for a private meeting.
That raised Republicans’ suspicions on Capitol Hill that Trump might be tempted to cut a deal with his fellow New Yorker — much as he did in the early stages of a September standoff — that would undercut the GOP negotiating strategy and produce a deal that congressional conservatives could not stomach.
White House aides assured top congressional leaders that no deal would emerge from the meeting, that it was meant to gauge the posture of Schumer and the Democrats. Republicans exhaled when that turned out to be so.
“We made some progress, but we still have a number of disagreements,” Schumer declared upon returning to the Capitol.
What ensued for the remainder of the day was a silent standoff, as it became clear that Republicans would not be able to lure enough Democrats to pass their preferred funding patch.
For a few Democratic senators, a vote to spark a shutdown was too tough to swallow — even for Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, who faced his first major political dilemma since winning a December special election in a campaign that emphasized his support for CHIP.
“I have made a strong commitment in my state to 150,000 children who need health insurance,” he said, announcing his decision to reporters late Friday.
He joined Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly, Ind., Joe Manchin, W.Va., Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., all of whom face tough paths to re-election in states that supported Trump in 2016 and voted to keep the government open.
But Michigan Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, meanwhile, announced they would both vote against the measure, bolstering the margin opposed to the bill. Four Republicans were also opposed: Sens. Jeff Flake, Ariz., Mike Lee, Utah, Rand Paul, Ky., and Lindsey Graham, S.C.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, looked at his watch and vented frustration.
“Government shuts down in what, five hours and 40 minutes? And there’s no solution? I don’t know whether Senator Schumer is just determined to take it down,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want to shut the government down, either, but they seem to be determined to do so.”
As the 10 p.m. vote approached, Cornyn declared: “No deal.”