Standoff over Trump border wall puts
Congress in budget 'pickle'
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[December 17, 2018]
By Richard Cowan and Amanda Becker
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A feud between
President Donald Trump and Congress over funding his proposed
U.S.-Mexico border wall gives lawmakers only five days to find a
compromise and avert a partial shutdown of some government agencies that
could leave about a quarter of the federal workforce without paychecks
at Christmastime.
Trump is demanding $5 billion as a down payment on construction of a
huge wall that he argues is the only way to keep illegal immigrants and
drugs from crossing into the United States. Democrats, and some
Republicans, argue there are less costly, more effective border
controls.
The money Trump wants is only a small fraction of the roughly $450
billion Congress was earlier poised to approve, if not for the wall
fight, to fund several agencies which will otherwise run out of money on
Dec. 21.
Large swaths of the government already are funded through next
September, including the U.S. military and agencies that operate public
healthcare, education and veterans' programs.
Several Republican and Democratic congressional aides on Friday said
there was no apparent progress being made toward resolving the
stand-off, after Trump and leading congressional Democrats battled each
other on Tuesday in the White House Oval Office in front of television
cameras.
"I am proud to shut down the government for border security," Trump told
House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Since then, a senior House Republican aide said his party was "in a
pickle" over how to keep the government open.
The aide noted that Republicans, who still control both houses of
Congress until Jan. 3, will not be able to muster the minimum 218 votes
needed in the House to pass a funding bill if it contains Trump's demand
for border wall money, which Democrats oppose.
If funds run out on Dec. 21, the NASA space program would potentially be
unfunded, along with national parks, the U.S. diplomatic corps and
agriculture programs.
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The U.S. Capitol is pictured in Washington, U.S., November 13, 2018.
REUTERS/Al Drago/File Photo
Similarly, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland
Security would be vulnerable to shutdowns, although "essential"
employees, such as FBI agents, airport security screeners and border
patrol agents, would still report to work.
Their paychecks, however, would not be issued until the shutdown
ends and Congress would have to decide whether to award back pay for
them as well as any furloughed workers.
A government in such disarray might not play well for Republicans
over the holiday period, especially if Americans also view images
for two weeks of Trump vacationing at his exclusive Florida
beach-front mansion.
"After the president’s comments earlier this week when he said he
was going to own the shutdown, that sealed the deal for Democrats.
There is absolutely no reason for them to cut a deal with this
president," said Jim Manley, a political strategist and former
Senate Democratic leadership aide.
With the clock ticking, the House is not even bothering to come to
work until Wednesday night.
For now, Democrats are waiting for the White House to signal whether
it will engage on legislation that would keep programs operating,
but without money for Trump's wall.
If not, Manley predicted the government will limp along until Jan.
3, when Democrats take control of the House and Pelosi likely
becomes the speaker and promptly advances funding, daring the
Republican-led Senate to reject it.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Amanada Becker; Editing by Kevin
Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler)
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