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| Senate Republicans Introduce Stopgap Bill to Avert Shutdown | Senate Republicans Introduce Stopgap Bill to Avert Shutdown |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| WASHINGTON — Moving to end a looming government shutdown, Congress is expected to pass a stopgap spending bill this week that would keep the government funded through Feb. 8 — and would punt the impasse over a southern border wall to the new year and a divided Congress. | |
| The measure, first announced by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, would pass the Senate before being taken up by the House ahead of the midnight Friday deadline, when funding lapses for nine federal departments. Both Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said Democrats would support such a measure. | |
| “I’m glad the leader thinks the government should not shut down over the president’s demand for a wall,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Shutting down the government before Christmas is a terrible idea, one of the worst to come down the pike in a very long time.” | “I’m glad the leader thinks the government should not shut down over the president’s demand for a wall,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Shutting down the government before Christmas is a terrible idea, one of the worst to come down the pike in a very long time.” |
| Aides from both chambers with knowledge of the proceedings said the Senate was expected to consider the bill as soon as Wednesday, with the House taking up the measure on Thursday. | |
| But it remained unclear if President Trump, who has been a volatile factor throughout the spending debate, would sign such a measure without the $5 billion he has demanded for a wall at the Mexican border. Mr. Trump has publicly embraced shutting down the government to force Democrats to capitulate on wall funding, but in the last two days, White House officials have signaled a softening of that position. | |
| “It’s not a win for us,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. And while he had not personally heard from the White House, he said Mr. McConnell likely received some indication of support from the White House, “otherwise, he probably wouldn’t bring it up.” | |
| The bill would not only maintain funding for the departments and agencies funded by the remaining seven spending bills, but it would extend a number of programs set to expire, including the Violence Against Women Act, the National Flood Insurance Program and critical Medicaid provisions. | |
| [How a partial shutdown would impact the government and its citizens.] | |
| Avoiding a partial government shutdown was a welcome prospect for lawmakers, particularly given the holiday timing and the number of lawmakers who await retirement at the end of the session or have quietly left after a November defeat. But even though a path to funding had been made clear for the first time in days, few lawmakers were wholly satisfied with the temporary resolution. | |
| Some Republicans saw the stopgap measure not only as the loss of their last foreseeable opportunity to secure funding for Mr. Trump’s signature campaign promise, but also as a triumphfor Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the likely next speaker. | |
| “I never believed we had a chance to go forward,” said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana. “I was never as sanguine as some about the possibility that Mrs. Pelosi would risk her speakership to fund President Trump’s wall.” | |
| “It’s been clear to me, that at least on this issue, Mrs. Pelosi has been running the show,” he added. | |
| But some House Democrats were frustrated that they would have to confront the funding issue just two months into their new majority. | |
| In a statement, Representative Nita Lowey of New York, the incoming chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, condemned the Republican majority for having “chosen to kick the can down the road for a third time.” She vowed to pass spending legislation that does not fund the border wall. | |
| The lawmakers and aides who had negotiated the details of remaining funding bills voiced their own disappointment. | |
| “We ended up with the best of all worlds — a good compromise,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. | |
| Republican lawmakers have struggled to find a compromise between Mr. Trump’s demands and Democratic opposition to spending money on a concrete wall at the border, a final dose of dysfunction in the waning moments of a Republican majority in both chambers and the White House. | Republican lawmakers have struggled to find a compromise between Mr. Trump’s demands and Democratic opposition to spending money on a concrete wall at the border, a final dose of dysfunction in the waning moments of a Republican majority in both chambers and the White House. |
| “I’m sorry that my Democratic colleagues couldn’t put the partisanship aside and show the same good-faith flexibility that the president has shown in order to provide the resources our nation needs to secure the integrity of our borders as well as the safety of American families,” Mr. McConnell said, speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. | |
| Democrats, with a majority in the House just two weeks away, have refused to budge from the offers they had laid out for the president, which included up to $1.6 billion for border security, but nothing for the border wall that was a central campaign promise of Mr. Trump’s. Democratic votes are needed to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. | Democrats, with a majority in the House just two weeks away, have refused to budge from the offers they had laid out for the president, which included up to $1.6 billion for border security, but nothing for the border wall that was a central campaign promise of Mr. Trump’s. Democratic votes are needed to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. |
| But by declaring he would “own a shutdown” in a contentious televised Oval Office meeting last week, Mr. Trump had deprived Republican lawmakers of their ability to pin responsibility for a shutdown on the Democrats. | |
| In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, he appeared to hedge his position. | In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, he appeared to hedge his position. |
| “One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!” Mr. Trump wrote on Wednesday, later insisting in a second tweet that a newly negotiated North American trade deal would allow Mexico to indirectly pay for the wall, a claim that has been met with skepticism. | |
| Mr. McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, criticized his Democratic colleagues for being unwilling to negotiate with Republicans over the funding. | Mr. McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, criticized his Democratic colleagues for being unwilling to negotiate with Republicans over the funding. |
| “This is knee-jerk partisan opposition to the administration’s reasonable and flexible request,” Mr. McConnell said. “Frankly it’s just political spite.” | “This is knee-jerk partisan opposition to the administration’s reasonable and flexible request,” Mr. McConnell said. “Frankly it’s just political spite.” |