AFP, Washington :
With barely two days before the US government runs out of money, and President Donald Trump feuding with Democrats over immigration, Republican congressional leaders scrambled Wednesday to avoid an embarrassing federal shutdown.
A bipartisan deal on immigration that would shield some 700,000 people from deportation lay in tatters after the president’s reported use of vulgar language during a tense White House meeting last week set off clashes with key Democrats.
The opposition party has been pushing for any budget agreement to include a deal on the future of the so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally as children and are set to lose their protected status on March 5.
While some Senate Democrats have threatened to vote against a budget bill that does not include an immigration deal, Trump said he believed such an agreement remained possible.
But time was running out, and a government shutdown “could happen,” Trump told Reuters, adding that there was still a possibility of him signing a short-term spending measure this week to avoid a shutdown.
With a Friday midnight deadline looming, Republicans are angling for a temporary bill that extends federal spending into mid-February, re-authorizes funding for a threatened children’s health insurance scheme for six years, and scraps some health-related taxes-with no immigration-linked measure included.
“I think cool heads hopefully will prevail on this,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told a press conference.
Rank-and-file Republican congressman Jason Lewis made a more direct pledge. “We’re not going to shut the government down,” he said.
But despite a swirl of meetings between lawmakers and White House officials Wednesday, Congress appeared no closer to a resolution.
“Nothing was agreed on,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, an architect of a bipartisan plan rejected by Trump last week, said after huddling with White house chief of staff John Kelly, who met hours earlier with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Even a Republican stop-gap measure could face opposition from far-right conservatives.
Ryan will have to win over key skeptics to get the temporary spending bill passed, particularly if Democrats unanimously oppose a measure with no agreement to protect the “Dreamers.”
Republican leadership is well aware of how poorly a shutdown will reflect on their party, which controls both houses of Congress as well as the White House and is headed for crucial mid-term elections in November.
Frustrations over the immigration deadlock boiled over in New York, where three people were arrested protesting immigration policy, and in Washington, where police said 82 people were arrested in a Senate office building during a sit-in urging protection of immigrants.
“I am undocumented, I am a DACA holder, and each day that passes by a lot of young undocumented lose their DACA and are put at risk,” said a 23-year-old college student who identified herself as Dennise, one of those arrested in New York.
Dennise said she arrived from Mexico when she was five years old.
Publicly Republicans have expressed support for resolving the immigration issue before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program implemented during the Obama administration but rescinded by Trump, expires in March.
But in a moment of bluntness, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the lack of clarity from the White House.
“I’m looking for something that President Trump supports, and he’s not yet indicated what measure he’s willing to sign,” McConnell told reporters.
With barely two days before the US government runs out of money, and President Donald Trump feuding with Democrats over immigration, Republican congressional leaders scrambled Wednesday to avoid an embarrassing federal shutdown.
A bipartisan deal on immigration that would shield some 700,000 people from deportation lay in tatters after the president’s reported use of vulgar language during a tense White House meeting last week set off clashes with key Democrats.
The opposition party has been pushing for any budget agreement to include a deal on the future of the so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally as children and are set to lose their protected status on March 5.
While some Senate Democrats have threatened to vote against a budget bill that does not include an immigration deal, Trump said he believed such an agreement remained possible.
But time was running out, and a government shutdown “could happen,” Trump told Reuters, adding that there was still a possibility of him signing a short-term spending measure this week to avoid a shutdown.
With a Friday midnight deadline looming, Republicans are angling for a temporary bill that extends federal spending into mid-February, re-authorizes funding for a threatened children’s health insurance scheme for six years, and scraps some health-related taxes-with no immigration-linked measure included.
“I think cool heads hopefully will prevail on this,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told a press conference.
Rank-and-file Republican congressman Jason Lewis made a more direct pledge. “We’re not going to shut the government down,” he said.
But despite a swirl of meetings between lawmakers and White House officials Wednesday, Congress appeared no closer to a resolution.
“Nothing was agreed on,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, an architect of a bipartisan plan rejected by Trump last week, said after huddling with White house chief of staff John Kelly, who met hours earlier with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Even a Republican stop-gap measure could face opposition from far-right conservatives.
Ryan will have to win over key skeptics to get the temporary spending bill passed, particularly if Democrats unanimously oppose a measure with no agreement to protect the “Dreamers.”
Republican leadership is well aware of how poorly a shutdown will reflect on their party, which controls both houses of Congress as well as the White House and is headed for crucial mid-term elections in November.
Frustrations over the immigration deadlock boiled over in New York, where three people were arrested protesting immigration policy, and in Washington, where police said 82 people were arrested in a Senate office building during a sit-in urging protection of immigrants.
“I am undocumented, I am a DACA holder, and each day that passes by a lot of young undocumented lose their DACA and are put at risk,” said a 23-year-old college student who identified herself as Dennise, one of those arrested in New York.
Dennise said she arrived from Mexico when she was five years old.
Publicly Republicans have expressed support for resolving the immigration issue before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program implemented during the Obama administration but rescinded by Trump, expires in March.
But in a moment of bluntness, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the lack of clarity from the White House.
“I’m looking for something that President Trump supports, and he’s not yet indicated what measure he’s willing to sign,” McConnell told reporters.
