Government Shutdown Drags On Into Its 14th Day

On January 4, 2019, in Government News, by Maggie Ernst

President Trump and congressional leaders made no progress towards ending a 13-day government shutdown at a meeting on Wednesday.  New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to pass a package of government funding bills on Thursday evening aimed at reopening the quarter of the government that is closed and shirking President Trump’s border wall.

However, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not take up the proposals or anything at all without the President’s approval. “The Senate will be glad to vote on a measure that the House passes that the president will sign.  But we are not going to vote on anything else,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after returning from the White House briefing with top congressional leaders on Wednesday.  McConnell added that he hopes a deal could be reached within “days” or even “weeks,” indicating a protracted funding battle.

Before the Wednesday meeting, President Trump showed no signs of backing down.  In a meeting with Cabinet officials, Trump said “We are in a shutdown because Democrats refuse to fund border security.”  He also pulled the rug out from a compromise offer spearheaded by Vice President Mike Pence that would have provided about half of the $5 billion that President Trump has sought from Democrats.

The President told the Democrats directly that he opposed their plan and Senate GOP leaders say they would not even take up the House Democrats’ bills to reopen the government, indicating the slim odds of quickly resolving the impasse in the new Congress. It now seems probable that the partial shutdown will drag into a third weekend.

President Trump has again invited congressional leaders to the White House on Friday, a day after House Democrats’ plan to push through their own shutdown-ending deal despite Senate GOP leaders’ warnings that the funding bills will not even come up for a vote.