Blame game: Congress reconvenes with no solution in sight to end shutdown

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The U.S. government shut down at midnight after Congress failed to resolve a partisan standoff over immigration and spending. In a late-night vote, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have kept the government running for four weeks. (Jan. 20)
AP

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers trickled back into the Capitol for a rare Saturday session with no clear path to resolving the bitter spending-and-immigration impasse that led to a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday.

The shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, after the Senate blocked a short-term spending bill — called a “continuing resolution” — Friday night as the prior short-term spending measure expired. Government agencies began ramping down operations Saturday, the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration.

In the House, Democrats and Republicans huddled in separate camps — emerging only to point fingers at the other party for a stalemate that has shuttered federal agencies and jeopardized government services across the country.

In the Senate, there was one offer on the table that could lead to a breakthrough — a three-week spending bill with a promise to use that time to hash out an immigration deal and other contentious issues — but it was not clear whether Congress could pass such a bill.

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“The administration’s position is that as soon as they reopen the government, we’ll resume conversations on DACA,” Marc Short, Trump’s congressional liaison, told reporters after meeting with House Republicans. “It’s hard to negotiate on that when (Democrats are) keeping our border agents not paid, keeping our troops unpaid, not paying for American services.”

Short said Trump spoke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Saturday morning and would be in contact with other congressional leaders throughout the day. But he said the president did not have any meetings scheduled to mediate the standoff.

McConnell has signaled he was open to that proposal to fund the government through Feb. 8, and a key player in the broader negotiations, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he thinks it could work.

“After extensive discussions with senators on both sides of the aisle, I believe such a proposal would pass,” Graham said in a statement Saturday morning. He said it would come with a requirement that if lawmakers don’t reach an agreement on immigration before the Feb. 8 deadline, McConnell would allow a free-flowing debate on the Senate floor to resolve the fate of the “DREAMers,” young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Those immigrants now have legal protections under an Obama-era program known as DACA. But Trump announced in September he would kill the DACA program and nix the legal protections for more than 700,000 DACA recipients as of March 5.

“I’m confident we can find a solution to Border Security/DACA once we start the process,” Graham said. “Success on this will lead to a breakthrough on all other issues.”

House Republicans and White House officials flatly rejected any proposal that would tie their hands on immigration, a hot-button issue that animates conservatives and liberals alike.

Democrats are under intense pressure from their progressive base to help the DREAMers — and to push back against a president they see as racist and divisive. Republicans face similar heat from hard-line conservatives who equate any relief for undocumented immigrants as “amnesty.” 

Trump revved up simmering animosity toward immigrants during his 2016 campaign, but he has given conflicting signals since taking office. He said last week that he wanted a “bill of love” to help the DREAMers, but then rejected a bi-partisan deal proposed by Graham, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and four other senators.  

On Saturday morning, House Republicans said they would stop negotiations with the Democrats over DACA until they reopen the government.

Some moderate Republicans say DACA has to be part of any broader budget agreement, and the Graham-Durbin bill appears to have significant support in the Senate. But Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would face a withering backlash from conservatives if he agreed to put that proposal, or anything similar, on the House floor as part of any broader spending deal. 

“He’s not going to do that,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-S.C., chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus. “I’m 100% sure at this point we’re only going to focus on opening the government back up.” 

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Penn., said there was no other way to resolve the impasse except to link the two.  

“We’re not going to get off this treadmill of (short-term spending bills) until we get serious negotiating on the budget agreement … and DACA,” Dent said. “It’s that simple.”

Asked if GOP leaders would face blowback, Dent said: “They might, but that’s the price of leadership.” 

Lawmakers said they would continue to look for ways to resolve the stalemate Saturday, even as each side appeared to dig in for another day of political warfare. 

House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., held a press conference Saturday to take turns at the microphone blaming Republicans for the shutdown.

“We are at this point for one reason and one reason only, and that’s the incompetence of the leadership of the Republican majority in the House and Senate and the incompetence of the leadership in the White House,” said Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Pelosi also warned that Democrats will not support another short-term spending bill unless there is an outline of a broader agreement on other major issues, including long-term funding increases for defense and non-defense programs.

“It’s no use having another CR unless we have the terms of engagement on how we go forward” on immigration, border security and other issues, she said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the paralysis is a result of GOP infighting and a “mercurial” president.

“Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Saturday. “Republican leaders refuse to move ahead without President Trump, and President Trump is so mercurial it’s been impossible to get him to agree to anything.” 

But Trump and Republicans said the shutdown was squarely the fault of Democrats who blocked passage of a new spending measure Friday night.

Contributing: David Jackson

Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Can’t let that happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

 

More: The government shuts down after Senate blocks short-term spending bill

 

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