Trump sways Republicans threatening blockade of shutdown deal
Published in News & Features
Republican opposition to President Donald Trump’s deal with Democrats to end the partial U.S. government shutdown began to crumble late Monday despite the ongoing a standoff over the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Trump implored House Republicans in a social media post to pass the spending measure “IMMEDIATELY!” He told lawmakers that “There can be NO CHANGES” to the deal.
Soon after, two conservative holdouts — Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Tim Burchett of Tennessee — said they agreed after a talk with the White House to end their threatened blockade, clearing the way to a Tuesday vote on the bipartisan agreement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had faced a tricky path to clear a Senate-passed spending package — the product of a negotiation between Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. That measure would fund most agencies through Sept. 30, and the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13, preserving funding for immigration raids while both parties negotiate changes to enforcement policies.
The shutdown’s effects are starting to accumulate and would worsen with time. The Labor Department announced Monday that its closely watched jobs report, due Friday, would be delayed. The tax filing season, which kicked off last week, could be hampered. And government contractors’ pay and service delays would spread the longer the funding lapse continues. Non-essential government workers would be furloughed.
Democrats, aware of public outrage over the administration’s methods in cracking down on immigration, want to prevent more confrontations with masked, armed agents like those that led to the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Conservatives worry that by supporting Trump’s agreement to place limits on agents’ behavior, they would be abandoning their core campaign promises.
Progressive Democrats say they will not vote for even two weeks of DHS funding until Trump agrees to impose new limits on immigration raids.
“My Progressive Caucus colleagues and I have been clear: Not another cent to ICE until we stop the chaos and the lawlessness,” caucus Chairman Greg Casar of Texas said in a social media post on Friday, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
To pass the bill, Johnson will need to cobble together a bipartisan coalition of moderates in each party by focusing on support for defense spending and reversing cuts to research by Elon Musk’s “efficiency” effort.
Johnson, speaking Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, sought to win over more Democrats by saying he sees a “path” to changing immigration enforcement policies, including requiring body cameras for officers and ending roving raids.
But he rebuffed key demands to require judicial warrants to arrest migrants and to unmask officers, whom he said are at risk if their identities were known.
Plan scuttled
Johnson initially planned to pass the Senate bill on Monday night using an expedited procedure that would require about 70 Democratic votes to reach a two-thirds majority. It soon became clear, however, that most Democrats would oppose the bill because it contains money for immigration raids.
“We need a robust path toward dramatic reform. The administration can’t just talk the talk. They need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.
Johnson changed tactics, bringing the bill to the floor using a House rule, which limits amendments and floor debate time. That rule will likely need to pass with only Republican majority votes, and conservatives demanded to attach a voter identification law to the package, a move that would stall the bill in the Senate.
Johnson invoked Trump to rally conservatives in the House.
“The president is leading this; it’s his play call to do it this way,” Johnson said on Fox News Sunday.
Trump on Monday pledged to “work together in good faith” to address ultra-conservatives concerns.
“But we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly,” Trump said in his social media post.
Johnson will still need help from at least some of moderate Democrats to actually pass the spending deal.
Moderate Democrat Henry Cuellar of Texas said he plans to vote for the bill with the two-week DHS spending measure and that he thinks it will pass the House on a majority vote. He would not say if he would vote for the rule to save it from a conservative rebellion.
Shutdown effects
The government shutdown that began early Saturday affects the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development, along with smaller agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Most federal workers were ordered to report to work Monday to begin shutdown procedures.
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(With assistance from Wendy Benjaminson and Kevin Whitelaw.)
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