Congress Inches Closer To Gov’t Shutdown

However, there’s a stiff partisan divide on an immigration fix, and Republicans need Democratic support to approve a funding plan to keep the government running after Friday.

“This agenda-driven report is clearly created to support the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and Islamophobic policies”, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said.

But Schumer said Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, and could pass nearly any bill they want, and so the blame will fall on them if Congress does not beat the Friday midnight deadline by passing a spending bill.

But others are under pressure from their liberal base who mobilized when lawmakers voted for a short-term spending bill last time around.

Pressed what he and other conservatives are asking leaders for, Meadows said they are pressing for more details on the big picture plan going forward. And that’s got congressional leaders understandably frustrated.

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Angus King, I-Maine, all of whom voted for the last short-term spending bill, said they would oppose the current GOP proposal.

“It’s baffling to me that Democrats would be willing to block military funding for unrelated issues”, Ryan said, referring mainly to the fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, which President Donald Trump ordered to end on March 5.

The commander-in-chief said Democrats were seeking to force a shutdown to “blunt” the success of the GOP tax overhaul, mixing messages with GOP leaders who are trying to tie that potential conclusion to Democrats’ demands on immigration.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that despite months of intense debate over immigration legislation, President Donald Trump has not made clear what he wants in a final bill, one that he would sign into law.

McConnell said that any filibuster by Senate Democrats would pin the blame for a possible shutdown on them. With Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) out for surgery, McHenry has been tasked with finding the votes for a fourth continuing resolution in a fiscal year that began in October.

“In our minds, the only question is the size of the deal – we had initially ball-parked a $300 billion deal over two years, though ~$200 billion over two years (equal amounts to defense and non-defense) now seems more likely”, said Chris Kreuger, a policy strategist at Cowen Washington Research Group.

“In my judgment, the CR will pass the House by the end of the week”, he said. Now McHenry is trying to keep the defense hawks in line yet again while also brokering a deal with conservatives that could imperil the legislation in the Senate. Another Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he won’t vote against a stop-gap because he won’t let the government shut down.

“There’s four of ’em”, Graham told reporters.

“I don’t see how this puts us in a different place than we were put after we passed the last” continuing resolution, he said, adding that he planned to present alternative proposals to the House leadership.

“I think this is like one of the only times ever, but certainly in a long time, that there’s been a shutdown when one party has controlled the House, the Senate and the White House”, the California Democrat said. Without it, the government will shut down.

Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, late past year but gave Congress until March 5 to pass legislation extending the initiative created by Obama. “I think we owe it to them and we owe it to the American people and to our ideals to find a solution”.

And with Democrats showing unexpected strength in recent elections – the latest a victory Tuesday in a Wisconsin state Senate district that Trump carried easily in 2016 – Republicans know they don’t have much margin for error heading into this year’s midterm elections.

As the afternoon wore on and leaders surveyed GOP lawmakers, one member of the Republican Whip team told CNN that things were going in the right direction.

Democrats also have their own considerations.

President Trump tweeted on Friday that a government shutdown would inevitably yield a military shutdown.

Even as a legal case winds its ways through US courts, as many as 800,000 DACA recipients, also known as “dreamers”, could face deportation starting in March.

John McCain, R-Ariz., absent for cancer treatment, Senate Republicans need the support of 11 Democrats to pass the measure.

The last USA shutdown occurred in 2013 and lasted for 16 days. It’s just hard to see that sort of statement, for now, as anything but posturing. Red state Democrats don’t want to run the risk of being labeled as responsible for a shutdown.

“They have a disproportionate focus on the border more than anything else”, Sen.