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Demanding Wall Funding, Trump Balks at Bill to Avert Shutdown Demanding Wall Funding, Trump Balks at Bill to Avert Shutdown
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — A deal to avert a Christmastime government shutdown teetered on Thursday after President Trump told House Republican leaders he would not sign a stopgap spending bill to keep funds flowing past midnight Friday if it does not include border-wall funding. WASHINGTON — President Trump torpedoed a spending deal and sent the government careening toward a Christmastime shutdown on Thursday over his demand of $5 billion for a wall on the southwestern border, refusing to sign a stopgap measure to keep funds flowing past midnight Friday.
“We protect nations all over the world, but Democrats are unwilling to protect our nation,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, after Mr. Trump met with House Republicans. “We urgently need funding for border security and that includes a wall.” With Mr. Trump unwilling to admit defeat on his signature campaign promise despite a clear lack of votes to get it through Congress, House Republican leaders scrambled for a way out of the year-end morass. On a dizzying day in the Capitol, they prepared legislation to add $5 billion for the wall to a measure to extend government funding into February, in a last-ditch effort to force it through in the final hours of their majority. It would also put them on record backing the president’s hard-line immigration promises.
House Republicans had emerged from a conference meeting Thursday morning disgruntled and without a guarantee from the leadership that the president would support a bill that would extend the government funding for nine federal departments and several federal agencies into early February. An emergency meeting at the White House appears to have confirmed those fears. The bill would surely die in the Senate, but in an appropriate denouement to a Congress plagued with dysfunction — much of it at the hands of the president — Republicans were unsure that they could even pass that empty political gesture through the House. As the spectacle unfurled, stock prices tumbled, economic uncertainty rose — and to cap off the chaos, the secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, retired in protest of the president’s policies.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said that the president cited “legitimate concerns for border security” as a reason not to sign the spending bill. “It is a shame that this president, who is plunging the nation into chaos, is throwing another temper tantrum and going to hurt lots of innocent people,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said during an evening news conference in the Capitol, as the House prepared to vote on its revised measure. “The Trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown; it will not get him his wall.”
“We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border,” Mr. Ryan said. “We have very serious concerns about securing our border.” Mr. Trump appeared undeterred.
Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana and the majority whip, told reporters that House Republicans would try to add $5 billion in border wall funding to the Senate bill. They would also attempt to add disaster relief money for those affected by storms and natural disasters as a way to lure Democratic support, though Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said Thursday that any wall funding would be an automatic “nonstarter.” “I’ve made my position very clear: Any measure that funds the government has to include border security, has to,” Mr. Trump said during a ceremony at the White House, delivering a screed against illegal immigration that recalled the themes of his presidential campaign, including fearsome statistics suggesting many undocumented immigrants were murderers and rapists. “We have no choice.”
A stopgap measure with wall funding may fail in the House, where Democrats are united in opposition and many retiring and defeated Republicans have yet to show up to vote. That could be the point. If it fails, Republican leaders could plead with Mr. Trump to relent. Hours earlier, Mr. Trump had privately told House Republican leaders during a hastily called meeting that he would not sign legislation passed by Wednesday night by the Senate to keep the government running until Feb. 8. His maneuver upended days of frenzied planning by lawmakers in his own party who had tried to devise a strategy that would satisfy a president who refused to say what he would support. As they scrambled, Mr. Trump’s attitude about whether to cut a deal or fight appeared to shift by the hour.
The chaos in Washington Thursday helped send stock prices plummeting while economic uncertainty rose. On the edge of one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, the Transportation Security Administration and air traffic control system were about to run out of money, though most of their employees would have to work without pay. Visitors to the national parks were forced to rethink travel plans. On Thursday, though, there was no mistaking the president’s stand. For the second time in two weeks, he was digging in for a shutdown fight over taxpayer funding for the wall, a project he once promised that Mexico would finance, but that has instead become an irritant hanging over every debate over federal spending. It has also become a potent symbol of how Mr. Trump is willing to buck consensus on Capitol Hill and empower a small minority of ultraconservative members.
“This is no way to run the corner grocery store, let alone the government of the United States,” Representative Dan Kildee, Democrat of Michigan, said. The president balked at the Senate bill only after coming under attack from conservative commentators on Fox News and social media for failing to fight for the wall. Personalities like Ann Coulter and members of the House Freedom Caucus warned that if he did not veto the Senate-passed measure that failed to fund it, he would lose the backing of his core supporters — and any chance at re-election.
“The sun has not yet set on our majority,” Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, wrote in an op-ed article posted on Fox’s website. “Let’s stand up and fight. It’s now or never.”
Mr. Meadows then accompanied House Republican leaders to the White House on Thursday to discuss the issue with Mr. Trump, and by early afternoon, the House delegation had joined Mr. Trump’s chorus.
“The president was very adamant that he would not support the continuing resolution coming over from the Senate,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader, as he returned to the Capitol after the session with Mr. Trump. “We’ll be able to move forward and keep the government open.”
But it was not clear how those two imperatives could coexist. Many House Republicans, particularly those who lost re-election races or are retiring, have been absent from Washington as the lame-duck Congress limps to a close, and several officials and lawmakers said it was uncertain whether there would be enough support to force through their plan, which would add not only the $5 billion for the wall but still more money for disaster relief.
And Mr. Trump’s zeal for a wall is not shared by all Republicans.
“I don’t know if it has the votes — it could be very close,” said Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, whom Mr. Trump mocked after he lost his re-election race last month.
Mr. Curbelo said he would oppose the measure to add wall funding to the spending bill.
That spending bill would extend the government funding for nine federal departments and several federal agencies past midnight Friday. Instead of confronting the president over his intransigence, Republican leaders fell in line.
“We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border,” said Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. “We have very serious concerns about securing our border.”
It was an ignominious end to the tenure of Mr. Ryan, who just one day before had given his farewell speech lamenting the outrage-fueled nature of the political discourse and its role in scuttling compromise on major issues including immigration. Mr. Ryan, whose speakership was diminished by an inability to maneuver around the Freedom Caucus at critical moments, had long advocated a broad immigration compromise, but he spent his final hours in the post waging a futile and divisive fight to erect a border wall.
The chaos on Thursday in Washington helped send stock prices plummeting. On the edge of one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, the Transportation Security Administration and air traffic control system were about to run out of money, though most of their employees would have to work without pay. Visitors to the national parks were forced to rethink travel plans.
[What to expect if parts of the government run out of funding this weekend.][What to expect if parts of the government run out of funding this weekend.]
The spending bill passed the Senate in a voice vote late Wednesday night but does not include funds demanded by Mr. Trump for a wall at the southern border. “At this moment, the president does not want to go further without border security, which includes steel slats or a wall,” Ms. Sanders said. “This is no way to run the corner grocery store, let alone the government of the United States,” said Representative Dan Kildee, Democrat of Michigan.
Though Mr. Trump has not publicly expressed an intent to sign or veto the bill, he told Speaker Paul D. Ryan that he would not sign the Senate bill, Mr. Ryan said. The president was facing a fierce repudiation from the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and his supporters over a perceived retreat from his signature campaign promise. As Republicans toiled to corral the votes for doomed legislation to fund Mr. Trump’s wall, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader who is likely to become speaker in two weeks, used procedural maneuvers to make it clear that it was Republicans who were standing in the way of continuing funding for the government. She tried to force action on a measure to do so, prompting an objection from Republican leaders and a vote in which Republicans voted no.
Mr. Trump, following a phone call with Mr. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, indicated on Twitter that he was frustrated with the limitations of the stopgap spending bill, which both Democratic leaders endorsed. He indicated that Republican leaders had promised the next spending bill to reach his desk would fund the border wall. “We’re right in the middle of a sort of a meltdown on the part of the Republicans,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters, declining to speculate on how the drama would end. “They’re having a breakdown over this.”
“When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the $1.3 trillion spending bill he angrily signed in March. “Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen!” Republican leaders began the day with a sense of dread, worried about opposition to the Senate bill among their rank-and-file but unable to assure them that if they did vote for the package, the president would sign it. Their closed-door morning meeting devolved into a tense and confused free-for-all as Mr. Meadows and other Freedom Caucus members said the House should fight for Mr. Trump’s wall, rather than accept what the Senate had sent.
Mr. Ryan abruptly canceled a news conference after the phone call. “That allows House members to be able to go back to our districts and say that we did what we can to fulfill the president’s commitment,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida. “That’s better than just beginning with surrender.”
Ann Coulter, the political commentator, was one of multiple conservative supporters warning that the president would jeopardize his re-election prospects if he failed to secure wall funding. The hashtag “BuildTheWallOrGOPWillFall” circulated among a number of conservative Twitter accounts. But Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the third-ranking Republican, argued that the House could accept the stopgap measure and still fight for the wall after the new Congress convenes, forcing Democrats into a messy debate over it just as they assumed control.
In the middle of the session, Mr. Ryan stepped away to take a call from Mr. Trump, who vented his frustration about the situation, according to two officials who were briefed on the call. Moments later, the president took to Twitter to blame leaders in his own party for failing to fund the border wall, suggesting they had promised a spending bill earlier this year would be the last without wall funding.
“When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership,” Mr. Trump wrote, referring to the $1.3 trillion spending bill he signed in March. “Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen!”
Ms. Coulter was one of several conservative supporters who warned that the president would jeopardize his re-election prospects if he failed to secure wall funding. The hashtag #BuildTheWallOrGOPWillFall circulated among a number of conservative Twitter accounts. A private GoFundMe account to rally citizens to finance the wall had raised close to $10 million by the end of the day.
“On the basis of his self-interest alone, he must know that if he doesn’t build the wall, he has zero chance of being re-elected and a 100 percent chance of being utterly humiliated,” Ms. Coulter wrote in a blog post Wednesday night.“On the basis of his self-interest alone, he must know that if he doesn’t build the wall, he has zero chance of being re-elected and a 100 percent chance of being utterly humiliated,” Ms. Coulter wrote in a blog post Wednesday night.
Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chair of the Freedom Caucus, used a football analogy on Fox News Thursday morning. “It’s not a punt. A punt actually helps” the team, he said. “This is a fumble, and we need to make sure the president stays firm.”
It was a final deluge of congressional chaos, with the House Republican leadership struggling to counter the mercurial mood from the White House and concerns that they were squandering the last moments of a Republican majority — a defeated caucus whose members have neglected to show up for votes this week.
“It makes it a lot more difficult,” Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, who was defeated in his November re-election bid, said of the dozens of missing members. “There’s a fear if a majority of Republicans don’t support it, the president would be less likely to support it.”
Mr. Ryan, a day after he offered a defense of his congressional legacy and lamented the “broken” state of American politics, had been set to argue that the best solution was to keep the government fully funded and accept the political loss.
But he was to be joined by Mr. Meadows and Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, both recurring instigators of friction and tumult for leadership, who are angling for a fight over wall funding and will return in January.
“The time to fight is now,” said Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, who joined the pair Wednesday night on the House floor in railing against the lack of border wall funding. “I mean, this is stupid.” ”“The time to fight is now,” said Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, who joined the pair Wednesday night on the House floor in railing against the lack of border wall funding. “I mean, this is stupid.” ”
And while some lawmakers voiced cautious optimism that with Democratic support, the vote would go ahead and reach the president’s desk without the border wall funding, the specter of a presidential veto lingered. Without conservative support, the House could not override the president.
Punting the impasse over wall funding until after the State of the Union address expected next month could give Mr. Trump the opportunity to showcase his argument for a border wall to the American people, some lawmakers said.
But it would put control of the fight in the hands of Ms. Pelosi, the likely successor to the speaker’s gavel.
“I think the question people are asking is: When is it better to have the fight? And is it better to have the fight on our own terms or is it better to have the fight on Nancy Pelosi’s terms?” said Representative Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, who will be in the Senate come January.
Some Southeastern lawmakers, sensing a final vehicle to carry unfinished legislative business, warned they would not support a bill that did not carry disaster relief for farmers devastated by storms earlier this year.
Some House Democrats also expressed frustration that a stopgap bill would stymie efforts to jump-start their own agenda when they take the majority in two weeks, according to a Democratic aide.