President Trump is preparing to sit down with the four highest-ranking members of Congress on Monday, just one day before the federal government is set to run out of funding. The gathering marks a change in course after he previously scrapped a planned session with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
According to three people briefed on the plans, Trump will meet at the White House with Schumer, Jeffries, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). Punchbowl News first reported on the arrangement. Schumer reached out to Thune on Friday urging him to convince Trump to agree to the meeting, warning that time to prevent a shutdown is running out, a Schumer aide said.
“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office,” Schumer and Jeffries said in a joint statement. “As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people. We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
Unless lawmakers take action, government funding will expire after Sept. 30, triggering a shutdown on Wednesday. Because it takes 60 votes to clear a filibuster in the Senate, at least seven Democrats will have to join Republicans in backing any plan to keep agencies operating.
The House earlier in September approved a short-term continuing resolution (CR) authored by Republicans to keep the government open until Nov. 21. The Senate quickly rejected that approach.
Democrats have been pressing Republicans to deal with matters such as expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and to undo Medicaid reductions passed in the GOP’s major spending package earlier this year.
Republicans counter that those demands are unrelated to the immediate funding measure and argue that some of the Democratic proposals go too far.
Last week, Trump had agreed to meet with Schumer and Jeffries but then canceled the discussion. His decision came after Johnson and Thune spoke with him about the House-passed CR and the Democratic list of priorities, according to a leadership source.
Jeffries repeatedly blasted Trump in daily press briefings over the cancellation. He even mocked Trump’s decision to attend the Ryder Cup on Long Island instead.
“He didn’t have the time to meet with Democratic leaders and fund the government and address the Republican health care crisis, but Donald Trump right now, as we speak, is at a golf event?” Jeffries said Friday.
In the meantime, Johnson canceled House voting sessions scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30 as part of his effort to push Senate Democrats to accept the stopgap bill that cleared the House.
{Matzav.com}
