By Erica Werner
Congress sent President Trump a short-term spending bill Thursday to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend, setting up a fight over Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall just before Christmas.
The legislation sets a new deadline of Dec. 21 for Trump and Democrats to resolve their standoff over funding for the wall, which is holding up action on spending bills for the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies.
If the dispute is not resolved, funding for those agencies will expire, and they will begin to shut down and furlough their workers in the middle of the holiday season.
“We don’t want to see the government shut down over Christmas, even though President Trump seems to brag that he wants one,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday on the Senate floor. But, Schumer said, “The wall request is a non-starter.”
Without the bill passed Thursday, the spending deadline would be this Friday, Dec. 7, at midnight, but lawmakers agreed to a two-week extension in light of former President George H.W. Bush’s death and memorial events.
Both the House and the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote Thursday. Trump is expected to sign the measure.
The bill does nothing to resolve the central dispute looming over the final days of the 115th Congress: Trump’s demand for $5 billion to fund his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico.
In their waning days in control of the House, Republicans know it’s their last shot to get Trump the money for the wall that was the signature promise of his presidential campaign. Trump long claimed Mexico would pay for the wall, but he is now asking it be funded by U.S. taxpayers.
“I do believe it’s become more and more of a line in the sand, especially when you have just a week or two left to be able to finalize things and get it across the finish line,” said Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.). “This is a huge issue that not only the president campaigned on, but many other members said, ‘Hey, this Congress we’re going to get this done.’”
Schumber and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are set to meet with Trump on Tuesday. But the party leaders have repeatedly rejected Trump’s $5 billion demand, especially as Democrats prepare to take over the House in January.
Schumer and Pelosi on Thursday proposed extending funding at current levels for the Homeland Security Department through the end of the budget year — which would allocate some $1.3 billion for border security and fencing for 2019.
Schumer said Trump’s other option would be to accept a bipartisan bill negotiated in the Senate earlier this year providing $1.6 billion for border security and fencing, a deal that has been on the table for months.
“The one and only way we approach a shutdown is if President Trump refuses both of our proposals and demands $5 billion or more for a border wall,” Schumer said.
Pelosi, speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference Thursday, said the border wall is “immoral, ineffective, and expensive, and the president — He also promised that Mexico would pay for it. Even if they did, it’s immoral still, and they’re not going to pay for it.”
But there are few signs the president is ready to back off his demand for wall money, especially after being convinced by GOP congressional to leaders to put off a shutdown fight until after the midterm elections. Instead, in a tweet earlier this week, he returned to an earlier demand of $25 billion for the wall.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No 2. Republican Senator, said he “can’t believe” the president would take Democrats’ deal to extend the current $1.3 billion level.
“He wants money for border security, and we’re not going to give him anything other than current level of funding?” Cornyn said. “I can’t see how in the world that would be acceptable.”
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said that the last time he talked to Trump, the president was “steadfast” on getting the $5 billion he wants for the wall.
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