U.S. President Donald Trump postponed plans to leave Washington on Friday while the U.S. Congress faced a midnight deadline to come up with funding legislation to avoid federal agency shutdowns.
Although the House of Representatives voted 230-197 on Thursday night for a Bill to extend expiring funding through February 16, the measure appeared to be on the verge of collapse in the Senate.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said that on Thursday, he was ratcheting up the likelihood of a shutdown from 30% to a 50-50 possibility.
Congress has been struggling since October to resolve the issue and the current Bill is endangered because of the deep rift between Republicans and Democrats on immigration issues that have found their way into the funding fight.
Temporary measure
The government currently is being funded by a third temporary measure since the new fiscal year began in October. Mr. Trump, who was scheduled to leave for his Florida resort in the afternoon, will remain in Washington until Congress passes legislation to avert a shutdown, White House officials said. “The trip is on ice. If there is a shutdown he won’t go,” one official said.
In a morning tweet, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of holding up the measure over immigration. “Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate — but they want illegal immigration and weak borders. Shutdown coming?” he said.
Republicans control the Senate but with Senator John McCain undergoing cancer treatment at home in Arizona, they will need at least 10 Democrats to reach the 60 votes required to pass a spending Bill.
In addition to strong Democratic opposition, at least three Republican Senators have said they will not back the continuing resolution in its current form.
Stopgap arrangement
Republican Senator Mike Rounds, who had earlier said he could not back the Bill in its current form, on Friday said in a statement that while the measure was “not ideal”, he would support it after being assured that other legislation to adequately fund the U.S. military would be raised soon. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has indicated that he was leaning in favour of the stopgap measure. Sen. Manchin is one of 10 Democrats up for re-election this year in States Mr. Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.
When the government shuts down, which has only happened three times in a meaningful way since 1995, hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal workers may be put on furlough, while “essential” employees, dealing with public safety and national security, would keep working.
The immigration fight is over Democrats’ demand that 7,00,000 young undocumented immigrants be protected from deportation.
Given temporary legal status under a programme started by former President Barack Obama, these “Dreamers,” as they are called, were brought into the U.S., largely from Mexico and Central America, as children. Many have been educated in the United States and know no other country.
