Congress at a Stalemate Over Government Funding, With Democrats Now Demanding Face-to-Face Negotiation With Trump

Congressional Democrats are hoping they can get President Trump to meet with them ahead of the September 30 government shutdown deadline after the Senate voted down both the GOP and Democratic versions of short-term funding extensions. The minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, has the power to block any proposal in the upper chamber along with his Democratic colleagues. The House on Friday passed a funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, which would keep the lights on through November 21. The goal of the legislation is to allow bipartisan negotiations to continue from now until Thanksgiving, which would result in a year-long budget. Democratic lawmakers — pilloried by their activist base back in March for acquiescing to Mr. Trump’s government funding plans with zero concessions — now hope to turn this into a dramatic fight where they can notch real wins. They say they want an extension of Biden-era enhanced health insurance subsidies, as well as language that would restrict Mr. Trump’s power to issue rescissions requests which allow him to cut funding on a party-line basis. During an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Mr. Schumer said he is hoping the president agrees to meet with him. “The American people are on our side,” Mr. Schumer said. “He’s not negotiating, so it’s up to them, and I hope and pray that Trump will sit down with us and negotiate a bipartisan bill. That’s how it’s always been done in the past. That’s how shutdowns have been avoided in the past.”Polling seems to back up Mr. Schumer’s claim that Democrats would escape most of the blame should the government shut down. A survey released by a Democratic pollster, Data for Progress, last week shows that 59 percent of Americans would blame either Mr. Trump or Republicans in Congress if there is a shutdown, while only 34 percent say they would blame Democrats. Democrats have the power to block the funding bill in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to end debate and vote on final passage of the bill. In March, ten Democrats voted to end debate, allowing Republicans to fund the government. Shortly before the House passed its funding bill — a clean extension of funding with an additional $80 million for security following the assassination of Charlie Kirk — Democrats released their own proposal. That bill would make the health insurance subsidies permanent and block the president’s rescissions powers. Mr. Schumer said Sunday that the Democratic bill is the basis for their negotiations, though even the most moderate Republicans in Congress have rejected such a sweeping extension of health insurance subsidies. “Our Democrats are firm — We need to get something done to relieve the distress the American people are in,” Mr. Schumer said of his healthcare proposals. “The bottom line is, we must — we must — get a better bill than what they have.”Mr. Trump told the White House press pool on Saturday night that he “would love to meet with” Mr. Schumer and the House Democratic leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. The president praised Mr. Schumer back in March when the Senate minority leader voted to end debate, saying he made a “really good and smart move.”Mr. Trump had previously said that he wants nothing to do with Democrats in Congress. Earlier this month, he told the GOP to plow ahead without them in the hopes that enough Democrats would fold and allow the funding bill to advance in the Senate — much like what happened in March. “There is something wrong with them,” Mr. Trump said during an interview with “Fox and Friends” last week. “If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it.”“Don’t even bother dealing with them,” the president said. “We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time.”

Congress at a Stalemate Over Government Funding, With Democrats Now Demanding Face-to-Face Negotiation With Trump

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