Shutdown, Day 33: Democrats Work on New Offer, but Trump Says Impasse Could Last Awhile

(USA Today) – House Democratic leaders are drafting a letter to President Donald Trump that would propose $5 billion in border security if he agrees to reopen the government, but Trump warned Wednesday that the partial government shutdown could drag on for a while.

The Democrats’ proposal does not include money for any “new structures” along the southern border as the president demanded, so it is unlikely to move as is. It is still significant because it’s the first time Democratic leaders will broadly lay out what they might accept in a compromise to end the government shutdown, which is in its 33rd day.

“It’s a starting point. You know, I think we all want border security. There is no question about it,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “It’s just that some of the things that are being pursued in the name of border security we disagree with.”

Thompson said he is involved in drafting the letter, which he expects to come from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“No new structures. The only thing we are talking about is existing structures, along with the judges and some other things,” Thompson said. He said there would be money for “some new” Customs and Border Protection agents and to bolster ports of entry.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the letter hasn’t been finalized, but “we are prepared to spend a very substantial sum of money because we share the view that borders need to be secure.”

The letter “is not a negotiation,” Hoyer said. “The letter is going to articulate what we believe is effective investment to accomplish border security.”

Thompson said protections for “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children, are not included in the proposal.

At the White House, Trump said Wednesday the government shutdown could drag on because of the dispute over border security and his proposed border wall.

Democrats “don’t want to see crime stopped, which we could very easily do on the southern border. … This will go on for a while,” Trump said while taking questions during a health care event.

In another sign the administration is bracing for a much longer shutdown, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has asked agencies to provide lists of programs that will be endangered if the shutdown lasts for weeks and even months more.

“Prudent management means planning and preparing for events without known end-dates,” said an administration statement. “As OMB continues to manage this partial lapse in appropriations, unfunded agencies are being asked to continue to share with OMB an ongoing list of programs that could be impacted within the coming weeks.”

Saturday, Trump offered a proposal that would include temporary protections for Dreamers as well as refugees who had been given Temporary Protected Status in the USA in exchange for $5.7 billion for his wall along the southern border. The president’s proposal would make it harder for minors from Central America to seek asylum, an idea Democrats oppose.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled a vote to begin debate on the president’s proposal Thursday. If that fails to get the 60 votes required, a bill that would fund all of the remaining government agencies through Feb. 8 will be voted on.

“I want my friends, my Republican friends, to understand the stakes here. Reopening the government for three weeks may not sound like a long time, but it’s massively important to 800,000 public servants who have been languishing without pay,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

It is unclear whether either bill will make it through the Senate.

The House voted 234-180 Wednesday to approve a spending bill that would reopen eight of the nine shuttered federal departments and fund them through Sept. 30. The House plans to vote on a separate bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 28. Neither bill is likely to receive a vote in the Senate.

On Wednesday, 30 centrist Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi calling on her to offer a vote on Trump’s border wall in exchange for his support to reopen the government. The wall is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled House.

Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a freshman lawmaker who took the lead in drafting the letter, told reporters the message was “we need to return to regular order, we need to open the government, we need to take these issues to committee, we need to analyze them in a facts-based way.”

“We promised our constituents that we would seek bipartisan solutions, and we feel that this proposal would gain bipartisan support and allow a transparent process,” the letter reads.

Luria, who represents a district Trump won in 2016, dismissed any notion that those on the letter were breaking with their leadership.

“This (letter) is very much in line with what we were just discussing in the caucus meeting,” Luria said after Democrats met Wednesday morning.

“I don’t think there’s any division” within the caucus, Luria said.

“It’s just coming from every direction, the pain that this is inflicting on people, so we just have to get the government open,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., another freshman. “Everything I’m hearing is the caucus is really united. It has to be.”