Shutdown Day 2: Congress Seems Far Apart on a Resolution

WASHINGTON — Congress appeared to make little headway early Sunday toward ending a two-day-old government shutdown, trading blame as lawmakers reconvened for another rare weekend session to try to find a resolution before the workweek began.

With the Senate meeting at 1 p.m. and the House to follow at 2, lawmakers remained mired in partisan disputes. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, said he would move ahead with a vote on a temporary spending bill, which would occur by 1 a.m. Monday, unless Democrats allowed it to proceed sooner.

The best hope for a breakthrough appeared to reside with a group of about 20 moderate senators from both parties who met for much of Saturday to try to hammer out a compromise to present to McConnell and the Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.

The group was considering various proposals, including one that would keep the government open through early February, provide disaster funding for states ravaged by last year’s hurricanes and ensure long-term funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It would also include a promise of some sort to hold votes on an immigration deal in the coming weeks.

In a reflection of the frustration on both sides, President Donald Trump, who has largely stayed out of negotiations since the government shut down early Saturday, began the day by advising Senate Republicans to use the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and cut Democrats out of the process if necessary.

“Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.'s!”

Leaders from both parties quickly dismissed the idea, but Democrats wasted no time in pointing the finger back at Trump. They accused him of going back on his word to support a bipartisan agreement to address the status of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants facing deportation, known as Dreamers, alongside other immigration changes.

“At the end of the day, the president has to step up and lead in this situation,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He has to be willing, as Chuck has said many times, to accept yes for an answer.”

Durbin was referring to Schumer’s eleventh-hour negotiations with Trump on Friday, which have proved to be a focal point for both parties as they have cast blame. Asked if he could say whether the government would reopen Monday, Durbin demurred. “I can’t answer that question directly,” he said.

If the government stays shut, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed Monday.

McConnell has proposed a temporary spending bill that would expire on Feb. 8, about a week earlier than the date set in a bill passed last week by the House. Any deal would most likely need the support of at least a dozen Senate Democrats, since the chamber’s procedural rules require 60 votes.

The proposed Feb. 8 expiration date was designed to at least partially accommodate Democrats’ demand that any temporary funding extension be short. But without a provision to address the status of Dreamers, the proposal seemed unlikely to garner sufficient Democratic support.

Lawmakers in the House were mostly left to watch and wait as their Senate colleagues tried to come together.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Sunday that his caucus had agreed to pass McConnell’s proposal if it made it out of the Senate. The onus of ending the shutdown, he said, was on Senate Democrats, and he urged them to vote to reopen the government and then restart separate immigration negotiations.

“This was solely done by the Senate Democrats. It’s absolutely meaningless,” Ryan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “They shut down the government over a completely unrelated issue.”