President Donald Trump is reportedly trying to plan a meeting with House and Senate leadership as Congress returns from the August recess and attempts to avert a possible government shutdown, The Hill reports.
Politico reported Thursday that Trump is working on setting up a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
A spending bill must be passed in the upcoming weeks or the federal government will shut down October 1. Congress is also faced with trying to pass a bill to increase the debt limit.
Trump told a crowd at his Phoenix rally on Tuesday that he won’t support a spending package that omits funds for his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” he said.
Trump also attacked Republican leaders in tweets early Thursday, blaming them for not tying legislation to raise the debt ceiling to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) bill that he signed Wednesday, calling the process a “mess”.
“I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The House and Senate return from their recess on September 5. GOP leaders are looking to move on to tax reform alongside the debt ceiling and spending bills as the party recuperates from collapsed efforts to repeal ObamaCare in July.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump was “disappointed” in Congress for not repealing ObamaCare, but was ready to work with congressional leaders when the recess ends next month.
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