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Bloomberg
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are once again far apart on a government spending bill with just days to go before a partial shutdown.
The next deadline is January 19, and after Republican leaders met with President Donald Trump and cabinet officials over the weekend at Camp David there was no indication either side had budged on some of the policy disputes — most prominently immigration — that are tied up in the debate over funding.
This week will be crucial in terms of reaching bipartisan deals, with the House and Senate needing the following week to vote whatever bill emerges from negotiations.
The government has been running on autopilot since the fiscal year began October 1, relying on a series of short-term measures that have kept the government running at last year’s funding levels. The tangle of other issues and the looming deadline makes yet another stopgap bill almost inevitable.
A key test will be whether Democrats and Republicans can agree to add other items to the new stopgap, including a two-year agreement to raise budget caps, changes to immigration laws, funding for natural disasters, and health-care law revisions. Unlike the tax cuts enacted by the GOP in December, Republicans will need votes from Democrats, and significant differences remain in each area, particularly immigration.
“If the Democrats want to shut down the government because they can’t get amnesty for illegal immigrants, then they’re going to have to defend those actions to the American people,†Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on ABC’s “This Week†program.
If both parties can agree this week on raising budget limits, Congress may be able to pass a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, said Muftiah McCartin, a former spending panel staff member for House Democrats and now at Covington & Burling LLP. “If they don’t get a deal, will the Democrats allow another CR to go forward? I’d kind of be surprised,†McCartin said.
The most difficult issue is immigration, and progress likely awaits a mid-week meeting of Democratic and Republican congressional leaders with Trump.
All sides agree something should be done to shield from deportation about 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, known as dreamers. Trump announced in September that an Obama-era program that shielded them, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would end in early March, and he urged lawmakers to come to an agreement on how their status should be handled.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he wants to see immigration legislation move separately this month if a deal is reached. Democrats want deportation protections as part of the broader spending bill, and are willing to pair it with what party leaders call “reasonable†GOP border security provisions that don’t include a wall.
Trump has said he’s willing to address the dreamers issue in exchange for money for a US-Mexico border wall, an end to family immigration preferences and a visa lottery intended to promote diversity. But the standoff has been deepening. “We want the wall,†Trump said at Camp David.