By Siobhan Hughes, Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews
WASHINGTON -- Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate
dug into their positions in a fight over immigration policy
Saturday, as leaders from both parties tried to gain the upper hand
by blaming one another for a spending impasse that triggered the
first government shutdown in more than four years.
President Donald Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, according to a White House aide, who said the Kentucky
Republican was expected to put forth a new three-week spending bill
as part of a broader plan to break a deadlock that has been
building for months.
In the House, Republican leaders were preparing a multipronged
approach, and were ready to vote on a new spending bill if one
passes the Senate but also weighing their own new offer.
Funding for the government expired at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday
after the Senate rejected a one-month spending bill that had
earlier been passed by the House. Despite the shutdown, much of the
federal government's work was expected to continue, as some
departments' operations are deemed essential and some agencies say
they have sufficient funds to carry on operations for a few days,
while lawmakers sort out their differences
The impasse set off a new round of finger-pointing that
continued into Saturday.
Many House Republicans came back to the Capitol Saturday morning
with a renewed determination to pass a spending bill free of any
immigration-related policy changes, convinced that Democratic
resolve would weaken.
In a closed-door House GOP conference meeting, Speaker Paul Ryan
(R., Wis.) read out headlines from the morning's newspapers that he
said indicated Senate Democrats were responsible for the shutdown,
according to a person in the room.
Mr. Ryan told cheering GOP lawmakers that Republicans had been
reasonable while Democrats had overreached and that the minority
party was now seeking a way out.
Later, on the House floor, Mr. Ryan said "the federal government
is needlessly shut down because of Senate Democrats."
"One party in one house of this Congress is deliberately holding
our government hostage. This did not need to happen," Mr. Ryan
said.
Mr. McConnell, on the Senate floor, echoed that sentiment.
"Like the president, like the House and like a bipartisan
majority of senators, the American people cannot begin to
understand why the senate Democratic leader thinks the entire
government should be shut down until he gets his way on illegal
immigration," Mr. McConnell said, referring to Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) "The solution is to end the
foolishness that's hurting millions of Americans who've done
absolutely nothing to deserve this."
Democrats said their resolve to find a solution to the
immigration issue wasn't weakening and said the party that controls
the White House and Congress are responsible.
"We are happy and eager to compromise, but we will not be
bullied," Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor. "The Republicans
control the White House, the Senate, the House. That's why America
and the world are calling this shutdown the Trump shutdown." Mr.
Schumer said that Mr. Trump has "turned blowing up bipartisan
agreements into an art form."
"Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with
Jello," Mr. Schumer said.
At the White House, the president was receiving regular updates
and spoke with both Mr. McConnell and Mr. Ryan, spokeswoman Sarah
Huckabee Sanders said. "We are committed to making sure the
American people, especially our great military and the most
vulnerable children are taken care of," she said. "The President
will not negotiate on immigration reform until Democrats stop
playing games and reopen the government."
The shutdown marked the culmination of a fight that began in
September, when Mr. Trump ended a program shielding the young
illegal immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. He gave
Congress until March 5 to hash out a replacement.
Democrats had hoped to use their leverage in the Senate, where
Republicans control 51 seats but need 60 votes to pass the spending
legislation, to force Republicans to agree to legal protections for
the Dreamers. But Mr. McConnell said he wouldn't hold a vote on a
deal not blessed by Mr. Trump and that Democrats shouldn't be tying
government operations to the immigration fight.
Mr. Trump, on Twitter early Saturday morning, accused Democrats
of being "far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are
with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border.
They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown
politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power
through mess!"
His legislative director, Marc Short, on Capitol Hill for
meetings with Republicans, told reporters Saturday that the White
House was "actively fighting to make sure the government stays
open," planning to flood Congress with a new round of phone calls.
Mr. Short also rejected an immigration measure from a bipartisan
group in the Senate led by Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Dick
Durbin (D., Ill.) that is part of a conversation in the chamber
about a path forward to reopening the government.
That legislation would extend legal status to Dreamers,
providing them with a 10-12 year path to citizenship. It would also
provide about $2.7 billion for border security and operations, end
the diversity visa lottery, which randomly awards 50,000 green
cards to would-be immigrants from underrepresented countries, and
eliminate the ability of legal permanent residents to sponsor adult
children for green cards.
"We're pleased that the proposal actually focused on the four
areas we're interested in, but it's woefully insufficient," Mr.
Short said. He said that "we're anxious to get a bill to the floor
that the president can sign. That one is not one that he can
sign."
How that stance plays out in the Senate is an open question. Mr.
Graham said in a statement Saturday that he believes a measure to
fund the government through Feb. 8 would pass the Senate it GOP
leaders also committed to vote on immigration legislation if no
alternative agreement was reached with the White House and the
House. Under such a deal, senators would be allowed amendment
votes, an option that leaders don't always allow.
But Senate Democrats have balked at considering immigration
legislation unless it is attached to a must-pass measure.
Mr. McCarthy told reporters that he thought a spending bill to
fund the government through Feb. 8 would pass the House. But
Republican leaders were also discussing other options.
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R., Texas), who
manages the committee through which all legislation must move
before going to the floor, said he would "anticipate that we would
have an offense, not a defense," meaning a new proposal to offer
the Senate.
Republicans were convinced that Senate Democrats had overplayed
their hand and were looking for a way out. "Inside the Democratic
conference, they are not happy about this," House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said, adding that he had been texting
with Democrats. "This is irresponsible. "It's almost like a
tantrum....you have to do everything that I want -- otherwise
everybody else has to be hurt.
The Senate was expected to be back in session at noon, while
House lawmakers returned to work for a 9 a.m. session.
Mr. Trump on Friday had canceled plans to travel to his private
resort on Palm Beach, Fla., where an event had been planned for
Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of his first year in
office.
The Saturday sessions follow a dramatic night of intense
negotiations, and a failed 50-49 Senate vote to move forward with a
House bill that would have funded the government through Feb.
16.
Five Democrats voted with most Republicans for the bill while
five Republicans opposed it, including Mr. McConnell, a move that
allowed him to bring it up for another vote later. Sen. John McCain
(R., Ariz.) didn't vote because he was at home undergoing cancer
treatment.
Much of the government's work is expected to continue despite
the shutdown, as the Trump administration aims to apply what senior
administration officials called flexibility to shutdown rules that
contain a variety of exceptions.
Mr. Trump's own activities, including planned travel to the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, can continue under an
exemption for activity required by the president to carry out his
constitutional duties.
Lawmakers said early Saturday they weren't sure how this
shutdown would compare to the most recent one, in 2013, which
lasted 16 full days.
"I cannot think of one that really compares to this," said
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the longest serving Democrat in the
Senate. "We've never had an instance where the president changes
his mind all the time, and then says we ought to have a good
shutdown. I can't think of any president, Republican or Democrat,
who wanted a shutdown."
Mr. Trump said on Twitter last May that a government shutdown
might be needed to get his priorities through Congress.
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com, Kristina
Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Natalie Andrews at
Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2018 14:15 ET (19:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.