Republican Senator Graham urges Trump to
open U.S. government temporarily
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[January 14, 2019]
By Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator
close to President Donald Trump on Sunday backed a temporary re-opening
of the federal government, in the 23rd day of the longest shutdown ever,
to allow for talks on a spending agreement that could satisfy Trump's
border security demands.
Democrats in Congress rejected Trump's request that legislation to fund
the government include $5.7 billion of taxpayer money for a wall on the
U.S. border with Mexico. They have refused further negotiations until
the government is reopened after being partially shut down since Dec.
22.
Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he
urged the president on Sunday to reopen the government for a limited
period to try to get talks going again.
If no progress is made, he said, then Trump should declare a national
emergency as a way to get money to build his wall, a plan not popular
with some fellow Republicans.
"Before he pulls the plug on the legislative option, and I think we are
almost there, I would urge them to open up the government for a short
period of time, like three weeks, before he pulls the plug (to) see if
we can get a deal," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday."
He said Trump told him, "Let's make a deal, then open up the
government."
The record shutdown has furloughed 800,000 federal employees and cut
government services across the United States. They missed their first
paychecks on Friday, heightening concerns about mounting financial
pressures on employees, including air traffic controllers and airport
security officials who are working without pay.
Trump continued to blame Democrats for the impasse. "I'm in the White
House, waiting. The Democrats are everywhere but Washington as people
await their pay. They are having fun and not even talking!" Trump said
Sunday on Twitter.
Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for Democratic House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, responded on Twitter that, "Speaker Pelosi has been in DC all
weekend working from the Capitol."
In a meeting last month with Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck
Schumer, Trump said he would be "proud" to shut down the government over
wall funding. Recent polls show most Americans think the president is to
blame.
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President Donald Trump listens to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
speak during a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Senator Cindy
Hyde-Smith in Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. November 26, 2018.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of
Virginia, said she believes Trump and Republicans will lose the game
of chicken as furloughed workers, airport travelers, tourists and
others "experience the consequences of political dysfunction
firsthand."
"The shutdown is real. The wall is hypothetical. And at some point
soon, the Republicans are going to remember that it's real people in
their districts who aren't getting paid, real people who aren't able
to access government services, and real people who vote," she said.
A concourse at Miami International Airport was shut down for part of
the weekend because not enough Transportation Security
Administration agents were present to staff all of the airport's the
security checkpoints.
The airport said it would reopen the concourse on Monday and
"continue to monitor checkpoint staffing levels and make adjustments
as necessary."
Working without pay, TSA employees have been calling in sick in
increasing numbers since the shutdown began. On Sunday, TSA said it
had a 7.7 percent national rate in unscheduled absences, compared
with 5.6 percent on Saturday and 3.2 percent a year ago.
Democrats hammered away at their demand that Trump reopen the
government. Senator Tim Kaine called the wall, which could cost an
estimated $23 billion, a "vanity project" that Trump promised Mexico
- not U.S. taxpayers - would pay for.
"Put an end to the shutdown and put everything on the table," Dick
Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said on ABC's "This Week"
show.
Trump campaigned against illegal immigration in 2016 and said a wall
is necessary to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by David Shepardson
and Sarah Lynch in Washington, and Gabriella Borter in New York;
Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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