Congress closed up shop Friday night without a deal to avert a government shutdown at midnight, becoming snared by President Trump’s demands for new border wall money.
All sides insisted negotiations were underway but no agreement was on the horizon, and the adjournment of the House and Senate meant nobody would be around to approve it anyway.
That guaranteed the third shutdown of the year — one spurred by Democrats, one by a rebel Republican and this one by Mr. Trump.
The first two were brief, and all sides insisted they hoped this latest shutdown would also be short, though it was not clear what sort of deal might emerge.
The only major action Friday was in the Senate where, with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence, lawmakers voted to at least begin debate on a spending bill — but only after agreeing that there will be no more parliamentary shenanigans and brinkmanship.
Instead, the next vote will have to be on a big compromise, said Sen. Bob Corker, one of the Republicans who forced the matter.
“It keeps negotiations alive,” he said.
In gridlocked Washington that turns out to be a tangible accomplishment.
While most of the government is funded through the end of fiscal year 2019, dozens of agencies still don’t have full-year funding, and are slated to run out of stopgap money at midnight.
Without new funds they will go into shutdown mode, with only essential employees working.
Given the looming weekend, it’s unlikely average Americans will notice. And since Monday and Tuesday are now federal holidays, any real pain for the public would probably be delayed until Wednesday.
Still, it had appeared the entire episode would be avoided as senators on Wednesday easily passed a bill keeping agencies funded through Feb. 8.
The White House had signaled support but, after fierce criticism from conservative pundits, Mr. Trump upended those plans and said he wouldn’t sign the bill because it didn’t include money he’s demanded for more border fencing.
House Republicans backed Mr. Trump, adding in more than $5 billion for border security to the Feb. 8 funding bill, then passing it Thursday — disproving Democrats who’s said there weren’t the votes.
Senators, many of whom had fled Washington, got called back to vote, and Friday’s 48-47 tally — including Mr. Pence’s vote — showed that there was nowhere near the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic-led filibuster.
That left all sides reaching for a compromise.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters Friday evening that a $1.6 billion amount for border security “would make sense” as part of a deal.
That’s short of the $5 billion in wall funding that Mr. Trump is seeking, but more than the $1.3 billion Democratic leaders have offered in recent weeks.
“Obviously this is being discussed at high levels, and I think we’re getting much closer to a solution,” he said.
He said once a final deal materializes, lawmakers could speed it through quickly.
“I just can’t tell you [if] that’s going to happen in two hours, or five hours, or eight hours, so we’re working on it,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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