House Votes to Open Some Agencies as GOP Balks: Shutdown Update

(Bloomberg) -- The partial U.S. government shutdown is in its 19th day, and President Donald Trump joined Senate Republicans at a private lunch before meeting later at the White House with congressional leaders of both parties.

House Votes to Reopen Some Agencies as GOP Balks (5:14 p.m.)

The Democratic-controlled House voted 240-188 Wednesday to reopen several federal agencies, with only eight Republicans voting to end the shutdown.

The bill would reopen the Department of Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission and other financial services agencies. Democrats are seeking to pressure the White House to end the partial shutdown.

But the strategy isn’t showing signs of breaking House Republicans’ resolve to back Trump’s insistence on continuing the partial shutdown until Democrats provide $5.7 billion for a border wall. The eight Republicans were only one more than last week’s total of seven who supported a Democratic bill to reopen all the closed agencies. At least 55 Republicans would need to vote with Democrats to override a presidential veto.

Senate Republican leaders have said they won’t take up the bill, H.R. 264, even though a nearly identical version passed the Senate 92-6 last year, because Trump opposes it.

The House plans to vote on three additional appropriations bills this week, funding the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Trump Walks Out of ‘Waste of Time’ Meeting (4:06 p.m.)

Trump walked out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, calling it a “waste of time.”

“Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time,” Trump tweeted afterward. “I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”

‘He just walked out,” Schumer told reporters after he and Pelosi left the White House meeting. “He couldn’t get his way, and he just walked out of the meeting.”

“The president stomped out of the meeting,” Pelosi said. “It was a petulant president of the United States.”

“It’s just not how democracy works,” she added.

Vice President Mike Pence said the president “made clear today that he is going to stand firm to achieve his priorities.”

“Democratic leaders are unwilling to even negotiate to resolve this partial government shutdown,” Pence said.

White House Threatens to Veto Funding Bills (3:25 p.m.)

The White House threatened to veto legislation the U.S. House is scheduled consider that would reopen most of the shuttered government agencies.

The Democratic controlled House plans to vote starting Wednesday on a series of four funding bills that would re-open sections of government one by one.

“Moving these four bills without a broader agreement to address the border crisis is unacceptable,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement Wednesday.

Trump Says Republicans ‘Very, Very Unified’ (2:36 p.m.)

Republican members of Congress are “very, very unified” behind continuing the partial government shutdown, Trump said after meeting with GOP senators.

“There was no discussion of anything other than solidarity,” Trump told reporters at the Capitol.

Republican senators said in the meeting they’d stick together to support the wall, according to lawmakers who participated.

“We saw one Republican senator after another express unity -- that we would stand together,” said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said Trump “feels very confident that he’s in a strong negotiating position.”

Trump Warns He May Use Crisis Powers If No Deal (12:42 p.m.)

Trump said his threshold for declaring a national emergency will be “if I can’t make a deal” to fund a border wall.

“We might work a deal and if we don’t I may go that route,” Trump said Wednesday. “I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want. My threshold will be if I can’t make a deal with people that are unreasonable.”

Trump has asserted he has the authority to declare a national emergency and bypass Congress to fund construction of his wall -- a key campaign promise. Democrats have said they would immediately challenge such a move in court.

Trump, in an Oval Office address Tuesday evening, didn’t mention the possibility of using his crisis powers to fund the wall.

He added federal workers who miss paychecks because of the shutdown are “all going to get the money.” Furloughed federal workers aren’t necessarily entitled to missed pay, but Congress has typically passed legislation to pay them for that time when the shutdown ends.

Trump Says He ‘Didn’t Want This Fight’ Over Border (12:17 p.m.)

Trump said he wants “strong barriers” along the southern U.S. border to stem illegal immigration, adding that “a drone isn’t stopping a thousand people from running through.”

The president, speaking to reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office, made the remarks ahead of a 3:00 p.m. meeting with lawmakers, including Democrat leaders who have insisted that technological advances make a wall unnecessary and ineffective.

Trump added that he “didn’t want this fight” with Democrats over funding the wall. In a December meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Trump said he’d be “proud” to shut down the government if Democrats didn’t bend to his budget demands.

Graham Says There’s ‘a Deal to Be Had’ (11:50 a.m.)

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke with Democrats and hopes a broad immigration policy deal emerges this week to end the shutdown.

"There is a deal to be had," Graham told reporters. "It’s got to be wall-plus."

He said a deal could include money for a border wall, protection against deportation for thousands of young undocumented immigrants, and Temporary Protected Status for people from countries like El Salvador and Haiti who are in the U.S. legally because of civil turmoil or natural disasters at home.

"Here’s what the Democrats are going to ask, and this is a good question: ‘Will the president sign it?’" Graham said. "I believe and hope he’s open-minded to a deal."

Such a deal cannot include new limits on legal immigration previously demanded by the White House, said Graham of South Carolina.

"That ain’t going to happen as part of this deal," he said, adding that the White House will need to drop that earlier demand. "They lose me if they don’t."

Graham said he sees a proposal he wrote with second-ranking Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois as "what the market will bear." That would extend protections for the young immigrants but wouldn’t provide a pathway to citizenship.

Democrats Fault Trump Over Idled Federal Workers (11:18 a.m.)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held a news conference with representatives of federal workers whose agencies have been shut down.

"The people behind me represent the real human collateral damage of President Trump’s temper tantrum," said Schumer of New York. Referring to the Transportation Security Administration, he said, "Why should we ask TSA officers to go without their hard-earned pay while they protect our airports?"

"He has chosen a wall over workers," said Pelosi of California.

Jeffery David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said, "we oppose being held hostage."

Republicans, Democrats Stick to Demands (11:15 a.m.)

House Democrats emerged from a morning meeting saying they remain united behind their demand that the government reopen before discussing border funding.

“The government needs to reopen before any discussions on border security begin," said California Democrat Pete Aguilar, who has attempted immigration compromises with Republicans in the past.

House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York said Democrats are willing to talk about more border security funds once government agencies reopen.

On the other side of the aisle, House Republicans emerged from their meeting saying they remained strong behind Trump -- and that Trump is not budging.

"He’s standing firm," said Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

"He believes very firmly that we’ve got to address this. It’s eluded every other president, both Democrats and Republicans, to secure our borders," said Meadows.

Democrats Willing to Add Border Security Funds (10:46 a.m.)

Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a member of the House Democratic leadership, told reporters that his party is willing to “substantially increase” funds for border security using drones, technology and existing fencing. But, he said, Democrats aren’t willing to “waste taxpayer money” on a wall at the border with Mexico.

“We’re certainly not willing to reward a presidential temper tantrum,” Jeffries said.

Hoyer Says Closure Erodes Government ‘Credibility’ (10:25 a.m.)

Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, questioned Wednesday who would want to work for the federal government as a result of the shutdown.

He praised proposed legislation that would guarantee back pay for government employees whose agencies are closed.

“We are eroding the credibility of the federal government,” Hoyer told reporters.

McConnell Says Wall Should Be Part of Solution (10:15 a.m.)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on the Senate floor that barriers should be part of the border security solution "and the facts back them up."

He criticized Democrats’ vote Tuesday to block legislation regarding the Middle East because the GOP majority won’t consider bills to reopen government agencies. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has added to government shutdown with a Senate shutdown, McConnell said.

“They want to shut down the Senate as well," the majority leader said. "No progress, no bipartisan work. Not even on urgent and pressing matters.”

Here’s What Happened on Tuesday:

• Trump offered no new proposals to end the shutdown during an Oval Office speech Tuesday night, instead spelling out familiar statistics, renewing complaints about Democratic criticism of his proposed border wall, and describing crimes committed by people he said were in the country illegally.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a response to the president, reiterated their position: pass legislation to end the shutdown, then negotiate over border security.
• Fifty-one percent of adults surveyed Jan. 1-7 said Trump “deserves most of the blame” for the shutdown, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday. That’s up four points from a similar poll conducted Dec. 21-25.
• Unless the impasse is resolved quickly, 800,000 federal workers will miss their paychecks due at the end of the week.

--With assistance from Arit John, Anna Edgerton, Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan, Steven T. Dennis, Billy House, Jennifer Epstein, Alyza Sebenius, Justin Sink and Margaret Talev.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Justin Blum

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