Temporary government funding runs out at midnight Friday and the House and Senate are seeking an agreement on a temporary extension. Democrats are demanding that spending legislation include a provision permanently shielding about 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation, while Republican want to keep that issue separate from funding and budget negotiations.
Here are the latest developments, updated throughout the day:
Democrats Poised to Block Republican Stopgap Funding Bill
Senate Democrats were poised on Friday to block a bill to stave off a government shutdown at midnight, as the stalemated debate over the budget and immigration defied quick resolution.
The House voted 230-197 Thursday night to pass a short-term funding measure that would keep federal operations running through Feb. 16 while Democrats, Republicans and the White House negotiate on a budget for defense and domestic programs and legislation to protect some undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The Senate took an initial vote to advance the bill late Thursday, but was headed toward an additional procedural step on Friday requiring 60 votes that Democrats say they will be able to thwart. At least two Republicans have said they would join in opposition to the House-passed bill.
Senate Republican leaders vowed to keep repeatedly seeking votes to reconsider the legislation. “Then we will see how many times Democrats will vote to shut down the government,” Texas Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the chamber, said.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer joined some other senators, including Republican Jerry Moran of Kansas, in advocating passage of a very short-term spending measure that would provide funding for only a few days or a week while differences are negotiated. House members dismissed that idea earlier in the day Thursday, and they are scheduled to be in recess next week.
Republicans and Democrats cast blame on each other for the predicament, and there’s no clear way out because members of the House and Senate are making a variety of demands in exchange for their votes.
Democrats are “holding this critical funding hostage for a deal on a completely unrelated immigration issue,” Speaker Paul Ryan said after the House vote. Schumer blamed the standoff on “complete disarray on the Republican side,” including conflicting signals from President Donald Trump on immigration.
“How can you negotiate when the president who has to sign the legislation is like a sphinx on this issue?” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
One potential breakthrough would be significant progress on immigration among congressional Democrats and Republicans and the White House. Members of Trump’s administration, including Chief of Staff John Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, have been shuttling between meetings at the Capitol where members of both parties have been working on a getting a deal.
Democrats have been demanding that Congress act now to protect the young immigrants who are shielded under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump plans to end on March 5. Republicans want to pair that issue with stronger border security and restrictions on other immigration programs.
In a show of strength, House Republicans had enough support within their own ranks to pass the measure, H.R. 195, without help from Democrats. But even that came with some drama.
Some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus withheld their support through much of the day Thursday, but reached a last-minute agreement with Ryan to hold votes later on a conservative immigration bill and a measure to boost defense spending without increasing non-defense spending.
If funding were to lapse at midnight, it would be the first government shutdown in the modern budgeting era — dating back to the 1970s — that’s overseen by a party that controls the House, Senate and White House. Prior shutdowns under Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan all occurred under divided government.
The last shutdown occurred in 2013 when Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to eliminate funding for Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Republicans had the majority in the House, while Democrats held the Senate.
— Anna Edgerton, Laura Litvan, Erik Wasson and Sahil Kapur.
Here’s What Happened Yesterday:
- A group of conservative House Republicans gave their support for a stopgap funding bill after winning concessions from party leaders. Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said the group won a commitment for a vote on a conservative immigration bill as well as on a bill that increases defense spending without raising non-defense spending.
- Several Senate Republicans said a stopgap bill to fund the government for just a few days is now under discussion. That would extend talks on a variety of contentious issues from budget levels to immigration into next week without partially shuttering federal operations. While far from a done deal — and one top Republican said flatly it won’t happen — the discussion is real and growing. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake said some lawmakers have been discussing a five-day bill that would extend government funding through Jan. 23. It’s an idea being floated by Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, and others as a way of keeping pressure on negotiators while avoiding a partial shutdown starting after Friday.
- The White House backtracked after Trump threw a wrench into negotiations over a shutdown-avoiding spending bill by saying he didn’t want a provision funding children’s health insurance in the short-term measure. “The president supports the continuing resolution introduced in the House,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement hours after the president tweeted that the Children’s Health Insurance Program “should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!”
— With assistance by Laura Litvan, Erik Wasson, Anna Edgerton, Sahil Kapur, Steven T. Dennis, Arit John, Yueqi Yang, and Billy House
