THE House of Representatives barely passed a bill in a 230-197 vote on Thursday night, January 18, that would allow the federal government to stay open for about a month longer through a short-term budget measure, the fourth since the fiscal year began in October.
With only hours left on Friday morning, the bill moved to the Senate, where Democrats and some Republicans had the power of blocking the bill, which as a result, would send the government into its first shutdown since 2013 beginning Friday midnight.
The bill — which extends budget negotiations until mid-February — involved the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years.
In a standoff over immigration, Senate Democrats and a few Republicans remained against the measure because it lacked of protections for the over 800,000 DREAMers protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and it failed to address priorities including disaster relief.
The DACA protections are to set to begin expiring in March after the Trump administration announced that it would end last year.
“Government Funding Bill past (sic) last night in the House of Representatives. Now Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate – but they want illegal immigration and weak borders. Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!” Trump tweeted early Friday morning.
The White House had announced that President Donald Trump had to cancel his planned Mar-a-Lago Florida trip until a spending deal was reached.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) met with Trump Friday morning at the White House amidst the time crunch to talk deals on keeping the government open and said they had made “some progress” as he returned to the Capitol.
“We had a long and detailed meeting, “ said Schumer. “We discussed all of the major outstanding issues. We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussions will continue.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) chose an optimistic tone in tweeting Friday that he was glad to see Trump and Schumer engaging in dialogue.
“This is welcome news to American people, military, DACA recipients. Let’s see if two New Yorkers can agree on a deal good for USA. I believe — in America — anything,” tweeted Graham.
He ended a following tweet saying, “I have confidence President Trump can and will lead us to a successful conclusion on multiple issues important to the American people.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called out Schumer in his warning that the Senate was “just hours away from an entirely avoidable government shutdown.”
Many Republicans have started calling the possible shutdown, the “Schumer Shutdown”.
“This should be a no-brainer,” said McConnell. “And it would be, except the Democratic leader has convinced his members to filibuster any funding bill that doesn’t include legislation that they are demanding for people who came into the United States illegally.”
