WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump will settle for border security funding instead of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which means a deal to avert a government shutdown is growing ever more likely.
But lawmakers only have until midnight Friday (or more specifically, 12 a.m. EST on Saturday) to reach a deal on 2017 government spending levels, and there are still issues to be resolved, chiefly subsidies for low-income users of former President Barack Obama's health care law, which Democrats want but the White House and some congressional Republicans oppose. The Hill reports Democrats have offered to agree to an additional $15 billion in military funding if the politically charged subsidies are funded.
Democrats have leverage because Republicans lack the votes in the Senate to pass spending legislation on their own and because Republican leadership fears the GOP would be blamed for a government shutdown. In other words, Republicans are motivated to make a deal.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that leverage in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday evening, saying: "Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have a place at the table."
Even as Mulvaney said Trump would sign a government spending bill that does not include border wall funding, he insisted: "We're not backing down." Democrats, he said, had agreed to funding for border security, though not "bricks and mortar."
The wall could shift to fiscal 2018 discussions, Mulvaney said.
"That discussion actually starts as soon as this bill is signed," Mulvaney said. "We just thought that it would be a good first step to get these things that everybody agrees on and take that idea of a government shutdown off the table."
Those remarks came after Trump insisted on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested Wednesday that Democrats were adding demands.
"Conversations are ongoing about the way forward on a government spending bill," he said in a Senate floor speech. "Our friends on the other side of the aisle sent me a letter asking for this bill to reject poison pill riders. I would suggest that if they take their own advice, we can finish this negotiation and produce" an agreement that both sides can support.
A day earlier, McConnell told reporters Republicans are "hoping to reach an agreement in the next few days," but he declined to speculate about a weeklong continuing resolution some lawmakers predict will be necessary.
McConnell also took a jab at his counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying that "there have been some challenges in getting Sen. Schumer to interact with the White House. I've had no problems with the White House."
Schumer, for his part, said Democrats are negotiating for provisions on health care for coal miners, aid to Puerto Rico and health care subsidies. Otherwise, he said. there has been "good progress" in the ongoing negotiations.
Of Trump, he said: "We're pleased he's backing off" the request for border wall funding.
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
