Democrats Try to Box In Trump With Plan to End Government Shutdown Without Wall Funding

Democrats Try to Box In Trump With Plan to End Government Shutdown Without Wall Funding



By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and EMILY COCHRANE
11 hrs ago






WASHINGTON — House Democrats are putting forward a proposal to reopen the federal government by severing funding for the Department of Homeland Security and border security from other spending bills that enjoy bipartisan support — a gambit aimed at forcing President Trump to negotiate or to shoulder the blame for a protracted shutdown.
The Democrats’ plan, which will come up for a vote on Thursday when they take control of the House, consists of two bills. The first includes six bipartisan spending measures that would fully fund agencies like the Interior Department and the Internal Revenue Service through the end of the fiscal year in September.
The second would extend homeland security funding at current levels through Feb. 8, including $1.3 billion for fencing but no funding for Mr. Trump’s border wall — a provision that renders it dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.
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By splitting off the homeland security bill, Democrats are opening the door to a month of negotiations. But they are also essentially daring Mr. Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to keep a big chunk of the government shuttered over the president’s demand for the wall. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who is expected to be sworn in as speaker on Thursday, challenged Republicans in a joint statement on Monday.
“If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans refuse to support the first bill, then they are complicit with President Trump in continuing the Trump shutdown and in holding the health and safety of the American people and workers’ paychecks hostage over the wall,” the statement said, adding that rejecting the bill would be “the height of irresponsibility and political cynicism.”
Mr. Trump continued to dig in on New Year’s Eve, venting his frustrations in tweets and in a Fox News interview as the shutdown stretched into its 10th day and as furloughed federal workers were about to miss their paychecks on Wednesday.
“I spent Christmas in the White House, I spent New Year’s Eve now in the White House,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News, according to excerpts released. “And you know, I’m here, I’m ready to go. It’s very important. A lot of people are looking to get their paycheck, so I’m ready to go whenever they want.”
Erin Schaff for The New York Times Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, has asserted that Democrats would not cave on the issue of wall funding. The president made building a “big beautiful” wall along the southern border a central promise of his 2016 campaign, and he is concerned that if he gives in on wall funding, his political base will revolt.
“I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall,” Mr. Trump wrote Monday morning on Twitter. “Our Southern Border has long been an ‘Open Wound,’ where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country.”
In a tweet Monday night, he added that “some things NEVER get better” over time: “You have Walls and you have Wheels. It was ALWAYS that way and it will ALWAYS be that way! Please explain to the Democrats that there can NEVER be a replacement for a good old fashioned WALL!”
And Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, blasted the Democrats’ proposal. “Nancy Pelosi’s newest funding proposal doesn’t represent any serious attempt to secure our border or find a compromise,” Mr. Meadows wrote on Twitter. “A $1.3 billion Democrat wish list that includes zero money for a border barrier is a non-starter and will not be a legitimate answer to this impasse.”
The shutdown standoff will give Americans their first glimpse at how Washington will work in a new era of divided government. It will also be the first leadership test for Ms. Pelosi, who anticipated a string of celebrations as she reclaims the gavel as the nation’s first female speaker of the House. She has continued to insist that Democrats will not cave on wall funding.
“He’s not going to get a wall,” Ms. Pelosi said in a recent interview. “But he has to recognize, we are the first branch, Article 1, the legislative branch, and we’re here not as a rubber stamp to the executive branch but are coequal to him.”
The shutdown is affecting parts of nine cabinet-level departments, and as it drags on, anxieties are rising among the 800,000 federal employees who are either furloughed or working without pay. In one ominous sign, the federal Office of Personnel Management has posted a sample letter for mortgage companies and creditors on its website, giving guidance to federal employees on how to negotiate reduced payments.
Democrats say their proposed measures would create a month of breathing space for the president to negotiate with them. But Mr. Trump would lose much of his leverage in the border fight if he accepts their terms.
The Democrats’ two-pronged plan will also complicate life for Mr. McConnell, who has said he will not bring up any measure that does not have the president’s support. Once the bills pass the House, as expected, Mr. McConnell will have to decide whether to put one, both or neither on the Senate floor for votes.
His deputy chief of staff, Don Stewart, refused to tip his hand on Monday, saying only: “It’s simple. The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign.”
By passing only a short-term funding extension for the Homeland Security Department, Democrats would effectively prolong the divisive debate over the wall — and potentially open a path for a broader immigration overhaul. That could expose divisions among Democrats.
But Democrats say they hope their plan will draw a sharp contrast between them and Mr. Trump by projecting an image of a responsible party trying to govern in a capital ruled by a president who thrives on unpredictability.
“I think it will suck some oxygen out of the room — that’s obviously what’s happening here,” Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, said in an interview on Monday. “We’ve got to really learn how to play jujitsu with the president and figure out how to take the wall issue and show the American people that we are the modern party who will actually secure the border and also be for a compassionate immigration system that recognizes the benefits of immigration and diversity.”
For newly elected Democrats, having the shutdown languish into the new year means that they will be able to vote and have a say in the renewed negotiations — a chance, some said, to open their tenure with a flourish.
“I’m proud that on our very first day, we are presenting solutions to the American people,” Representative-elect Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Democrat of Florida, said in a statement. “I hope Republicans will support this funding measure so we can move forward and work on the issues the American people elected us to tackle.”
The 1,070-page legislative package, which was made public on Monday afternoon, includes six bills that are virtually identical to the legislation that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2018, and in four cases passed the Senate, according to summaries prepared by Democrats on the committee. It also includes the stopgap measure for the Homeland Security Department.
The similarities, Democrats argued, bolster their argument that the package would pass the Senate, if granted a floor vote.
In several instances, the bills rebuff funding cuts proposed by the administration and instead pour more funds into programs Mr. Trump either suggested reducing or eliminating. One bill in the package includes more funding for the 2020 census and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate research.
The bill also provides $110 million for NASA’s efforts to teach science, technology, engineering and math — programs the president had proposed eliminating. Another bill would fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program, into 2019. And while the bill does not reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which protects victims of domestic violence and designates money for the prosecution of those who commit violent crimes against women, the package provides nearly $500 million in funds for programs under the act, which recently expired.


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