US government shutdown less likely despite Trump warning otherwise

Congressional leaders say they were close to clinching an elusive budget deal that would keep government open despite President Donald Trump calling for a shutdown if he does not get his way on immigration.

The bipartisan breakthrough came as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives debated and then passed a controversial six-week stopgap spending measure. February 6, 2018.
AFP

The bipartisan breakthrough came as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives debated and then passed a controversial six-week stopgap spending measure. February 6, 2018.

Buoyed by the sudden likelihood of a budget pact, lawmakers are on track to avoid a repeat of last month's government shutdown – though President Donald Trump unexpectedly raised the possibility of closing things down again if he can't have his way on immigration.

"I'd love to see a shutdown if we can't get this stuff taken care of," Trump declared on Tuesday, repeating the sentiment for emphasis.

Trump's comments were strikingly disconnected from the progress on Capitol Hill, where the House passed a short-term spending measure Tuesday night and Senate leaders were closing in on a larger, long-term pact ahead of a Thursday night deadline. 

The broader agreement would award whopping spending increases to both the Pentagon and domestic federal programs, as well as approve overdue disaster relief money and, perhaps, crucial legislation to increase the government's borrowing limit and avoid possible default.

Strategy dropped

Democratic leaders have dropped their strategy of using the funding fight to extract concessions on immigration, specifically on seeking extended protections for the "Dreamer" immigrants who have lived in the country illegally since they were children. Instead, the Democrats prepared to cut a deal that would reap tens of billions of dollars for other priorities – including combatting opioids – while taking their chances on solving the immigration impasse later.

Tuesday night's 245-182 House vote, mostly along party lines, set the machinery in motion. The six-week stopgap spending bill contains increases for the military that long have been demanded by Trump and his GOP allies. But the measure appears increasingly likely to be rewritten by the Senate to include legislation implementing the brewing broader budget pact.

House Democrats cancelled a scheduled three-day retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore to develop a strategy for the midterm elections. A spokeswoman blamed the cancellation on "the pressing issues Congress will likely vote on over the next three days."

The budget negotiations, conducted chiefly by the Senate's top leaders Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Chuck Schumer of New York, have intensified in recent days. The looming government shutdown at midnight Thursday added urgency to the talks. 

What does the deal include?

A prospective longer-term budget agreement would give both the Pentagon and domestic agencies relief from a budget freeze that lawmakers say threatens military readiness and training as well as domestic priorities such as combating opioid abuse and repairing the government's troubled health care system for veterans.

The temporary funding measure would also reauthorise funding for community health centres, which enjoy widespread bipartisan support.

Aides in both parties said the budget measure may also contain a provision to raise the government's $20.5 trillion borrowing limit. 

Another likely addition is more than $80 billion in long-overdue hurricane relief for Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, a top priority of lawmakers in both parties.

Under Congress' arcane ways, a broad-brush agreement to increase legally binding spending "caps" — which would otherwise keep the budgets for the military and domestic agencies essentially frozen — would be approved, then followed by a far more detailed catchall spending bill that would take weeks to negotiate.

Both McConnell and Schumer reported progress Tuesday morning.

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Immigration on the agenda

Prospects for dealing with immigration, however, were as fuzzy as ever. The Senate is slated next week to begin a debate to address the dilemma of immigrants left vulnerable by the looming expiration of former president Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme or DACA.

Weeks of bargaining have left the two parties divided over how to extend protections for such Dreamer immigrants and a court ruling has blunted a March 5 deadline.

McConnell said Tuesday that while he hopes "we will end up having something," he was unsure if any proposed measure would get the 60 votes needed for approval.

On Tuesday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly threw fuel on the dispute as he defended Trump's proposed solution. The retired general noted the White House proposal would expand protection for some 1.8 million immigrants. 

That group includes both the 690,000 currently shielded and also "the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn't sign up," he said.

No 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois, his party's chief immigration negotiator, bristled at the comment.

"I'm sorry for that characterisation. It doesn't surprise me from Gen Kelly," he said.

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