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GOP Leaders To Trump: Don’t Shut Down Government Over Wall Funding Right Before Midterm Elections
GOP congressional leaders will head to the White House Wednesday afternoon to persuade President Donald Trump not to shut down the government over funding for his border wall right before the midterm elections.
While Trump has threatened to force a shutdown if the budget does not include sufficient wall funding, he has also sent mixed signals on the subject.
“I don’t like the idea of shutdowns; we’ve already started the wall,” Trump told The Daily Caller on Wednesday, adding: I’d like to get the funding, the full funding, but we have done a lot of work … I don’t see even myself or anybody else closing down the country right now.”
The government runs out of money Sept. 30 at the end of the nation’s fiscal year. Lawmakers in both chambers have been passing appropriations bills in small clusters to get funding locked in for as many agencies as possible.
Then they hope to pass a short-term funding bill (also known as a continuing resolution) to keep the leftover agencies funded at the current level while they continue to hammer out a solution.
That strategy could avoid a partial government closure just before Nov. 6, when Republicans face a tough electoral battle to hold their majority control of the House and hope to expand their narrow Senate majority.
