The administration is not planning to shut down the government as negotiations over funding President Trump’s border wall rush toward a Nov. 21 deadline, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“We have no intention of having a shutdown. I think everybody intends to keep the government open,” Mnuchin said following a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the top congressional appropriators from both chambers.
Wall funding has become the central obstacle for passing bills to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.
Last year, the same issue led to a 35-day shutdown, the longest in the nation’s history. Trump has been seen as the wild card in the negotiations, and Mnuchin’s participation in Thursday’s meeting and insistence that a shutdown is not in the books raises the chances of things going smoothly.
Negotiators in the meeting agreed to find a solution on how to allocate funds between the government’s agencies by Wednesday.
Democrats have objected to drawing funds from health-related bills to fund the wall in the Homeland Security bill.
But negotiators now seem intent to strike a deal on the allocations and work out details on the wall and other disagreements later.
Next week, the House is set to vote on a four-week stopgap measure to avert a shutdown and postpone the deadline for passing full funding measures until just before the Christmas holiday.
Jordain Carney contributed
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