Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started the process of passing a bipartisan spending bill to avert a government shutdown, even as President Donald Trump vowed that he’d get his border wall built — eventually.
McConnell said he’ll introduce a stopgap spending bill Wednesday to keep agencies open through Feb. 8, and Democrats said they’re ready to pass it and put off the fight over Trump’s demand for $5 billion for the wall. Lawmakers of both parties expressed optimism that the president will agree to keep the government open after Friday when current funding for nine government departments runs out.
“One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!” Trump said in a Wednesday morning Tweet, in which he also accused Democrats of fighting Republicans “like cats and dogs” on the issue.
Underlying Trump’s declaration of victory was an acknowledgment that the White House has retreated from an immediate confrontation over the wall money.
White House senior aide Kellyanne Conway told reporters Wednesday that Trump could be open to the stopgap spending bill under discussion in the Senate.
“He’ll take a look at it certainly,” Conway said. Trump is still “working the phones” with lawmakers to see what kind of a deal can be reached, she said.
McConnell of Kentucky, speaking on the Senate floor, accused Democrats of acting out of “political spite” and being inflexible over border wall spending even as the White House was signaling some willingness to compromise.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and second-ranking House Democrat Steny Hoyer said Democrats in both chambers will support spending through Feb. 8.
“It is good news that the president has retreated from his demand that Congress pay for the wall,” said Schumer of New York. Hoyer of Maryland said Republicans aren’t any more likely to get an agreement from Democrats for the wall funding in February.
The short-term spending bill would also temporarily extend several programs otherwise scheduled to expire, including the national flood insurance program and EB-5 investor visas.
In a further sign of retreat, Trump said Tuesday night on Twitter that Democrats don’t want a concrete wall, “but we are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it.” He said it would “give our Country the security that our citizens deserve.”
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama said Tuesday night he began work on the stopgap bill after concluding that a long-term resolution probably wouldn’t be found before a shutdown would begin on Friday night.
Earlier Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders urged the Senate to pass “something,” and said the White House would decide its next step after that.
Nine of 15 government departments would shut down after Friday if Congress doesn’t provide new funds. A partial shutdown would hit agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Justice and Interior. More than 420,000 federal employees would work without pay and more than 380,000 workers would be sent home.
The other six departments — including the Defense Department and representing about three-quarters of discretionary spending — are funded through next Sept. 30, under legislation passed and signed by Trump earlier this year.
The fuller battle over the wall funding may become more difficult early next year with Democrats in control of the House. Trump said last week he would be “proud” to shut the government if it would force Democrats to provide the $5 billion he’s seeking.
Democratic leaders this month offered Trump $1.3 billion for border fencing after earlier this year backing $1.6 billion. McConnell on Tuesday proposed to Schumer a plan that would provide $1.6 billion for border security in addition to $1 billion for Trump’s immigration priorities. The immigration funding couldn’t be used for a wall, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Schumer on Tuesday rejected that proposal, which he called “a slush fund” for the president’s immigration priorities. “Let me be clear: the Republican offer would not clear either chamber,” he said.
Sanders said the administration was looking into whether funds from various agencies could be used to fund a wall, though it was unclear whether the administration had authority to do it. She also repeated Trump’s unexplained assertion that additional revenue resulting from the revamped trade deal with Mexico and Canada would provide more than enough revenue to pay for the wall.
Trump has suggested he might turn to the military to build a wall on the southern U.S. border. Second-ranking Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas said Tuesday it was unclear what authority could be used to shift money to border security from other government accounts.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California objected to the proposed wall spending. “The wall isn’t about money,” she said. “The wall is about morality. It’s the wrong thing to do. It doesn’t work. It’s not effective.”
Bloomberg writers Terrence Dopp, Margaret Talev and Anna Edgerton contributed to this report.