White House Open to Extending Shutdown Deadline Into December

(Bloomberg) -- The White House is open to pushing the government shutdown deadline to December with a short-term spending bill, according to Eric Ueland, President Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs.

Ueland’s comments on Capitol Hill Tuesday could lessen the chances of a shutdown during the House’s impeachment investigation. The current funding deadline is Nov. 21.

Democrats and Republicans are at odds over whether to provide new funding for Trump’s signature border wall, as well as the duration of a stopgap measure. Some lawmakers proposed delaying spending decisions by a few weeks, while others advocated for a funding bill to last though February or March.

“It seems as if the center of gravity around here is coalescing around a date in December,” Ueland said Tuesday.

He said that as long as the stopgap measure preserves Trump’s policy priorities, the president is open to signing it.

A disagreement over wall funds led to a 35-day government shutdown at the beginning of this year. The shutdown ended without Congress agreeing to extra wall funding, and Trump later used executive authority to raid military funds for the wall, a move that has led to litigation.

Trump on Sunday told reporters he wouldn’t rule out another shutdown.

“I wouldn’t commit to anything,” Trump said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net

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

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.