Shutdown ‘more than possible,’ says top Senate appropriator
The chances of a partial government shutdown next Friday are “more than possible,” according to Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I don’t think it’s inevitable. It’s probably more than possible right now,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “It’ll shut down unless we resolve some things.”
Unless Congress and President Trump can reach a deal, largely centered around the president’s demand to fund a wall along the southern border, seven spending bills will lapse after Dec. 21, shutting down the agencies governed in those bills.
{mosads}In an extraordinary, televised meeting on Tuesday, Trump told Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the likely next House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), that he would be “proud” to shut down the government. Trump wants $5 billion in wall funding in the Department of Homeland Security bill.
The Democrats offered a continuing resolution on the bill, which would maintain the 2018 funding level of $1.3 billion for border fencing through 2019, alongside full passage or continuing resolutions for the other six bills.
Since then, there has been little progress.
“We’re at an impasse at the moment. We’ve got nine more days,” Shelby said, adding that he had spoken with Schumer. Pelosi and Trump also had a brief phone call following Tuesday’s meeting.
House Republicans are mulling a floor vote for a bill with $5 billion in wall funding as a show of support for Trump, but have yet to decide whether to move ahead.
It is unclear whether they have the votes to pass such a bill, a topic of contention that arose between Trump and Pelosi in Tuesday’s meeting.
“I think we could” pass such a bill, said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Ok.), an appropriator. “But it would be an exercise in futility,” he added, noting that it would fail in the Senate.
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