Washington (AP) – Democrat and Republican Congress leaders White House for Meetings With the President Donald Trump On Monday in late efforts to avoid government shutdowns A willingness to be upset From their established position.
If government funding laws are passed by Congress and are not signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government agencies across the country will be It is temporarily shuttered Unexempt federal employees add to the burden on workers and the country’s economy.
Republicans are bold Democrats and vote against laws that primarily maintain government funding at the current level, but so far Democrats have held firm. They use one of their few leverages to demand that Congress hold down the law to expand medical benefits.
“The meeting is the first step, but it’s just the first step. It requires serious negotiations,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Trump has shown little interest By entertaining Democrats’ demands for healthcare, even if they agree to hold a sit-in meeting with Schumer on Monday afternoon, along with Senate majority leader John Tune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democrat leader Heicombe Jeffries. The Republican president has repeatedly said he is fully hoping that the government will enter a shutdown this week.
“If it needs to shut down, it needs to shut down,” Trump said. I said on Friday. “But they’re shutting down the government.”
The Trump administration has tried to put pressure on it Support for democratic lawmakers Away from their demands, federal employees warn that they could be fired forever in the midst of funding lapse.
“Chuck Schumer said a few months ago that the government shutdown would be confusing and harmful and painful. He’s right. So we shouldn’t do that,” Tune, a South Dakota Republican, said in “Meet the press.”
Still, Democrats argued that Trump’s agreement to hold the meeting indicates he feels pressured to negotiate. They say that Americans will mostly blame them for the closure as Republicans control the White House and Congress.
But to retain their negotiation leverage, Senate Democrats will have to vote against the bill on Tuesday to temporarily extend government funds hours before the shutdown.
The bill has already passed a Republican-controlled House and will continue to fund the government for another seven weeks while Congress is working on it. Annual Expenses Act.
The government-funding law requires support from at least 60 senators. That means at least eight Democrats have to vote for the short-term funding bill as they are Republican senators. Land Pole Kentucky is expected to vote against it.
During the final potential government shutdown in March, Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to defeat the Filibuster and allow the Republican-led funding bill to move on to the final vote. New York Democrats faced a fierce backlash Because of that decision, some have asked him to resign as Democratic leader.
This time, Schumer appears to be determined.
“We need healthcare help from the American people, and when it comes to these massive layoffs, I think we’re doing that anyway,” he said.
Democrats push for extensions to affordable care laws Tax credit It has been subsidized by health insurance to millions of people since the Covid-19 pandemic. Credits designed to increase coverage for low- and middle-income earners are set to expire at the end of the year.
Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credit, but are calling for changes. Thune said Sunday that the program “deeply needs reform” and Republicans want to deal with “waste, fraud and abuse.” He urged Democrats to vote for the fundraising bill and take on the discussion on tax credits at a later date.
It remains to be seen whether the White House meeting will help or hurt a possible resolution. Negotiations between Trump and Democratic Congressional leaders rarely went well, and Trump had little contact with the opposition in his second term.
The latest negotiations between Schumer and the President in August ended with Trump telling Schumer to “go to hell” in a social media post.
Trump also suddenly cancelled a planned meeting with Congressional leaders last week, calling Democrats’ demands “absurd and ridiculous.”
Schumer claimed that the White House’s return to rescheduling Monday’s meeting showed “they felt the heat.”
