Congress passed on Thursday stopgap legislation in order to prevent a government shutdown ahead of the December 8 deadline.
The short-term bill would keep federal agencies working for another two weeks, when the House and the Senate are expected to approve another such legislation, postponing a government shutdown until January.
The White House suggested that President Donald Trump will sign the spending extension and indicated its goals for the upcoming budget negotiations. It said the priority in a “long-term funding agreement” must be military funding, including money for missile defense and security along the Mexico border.
The stopgap bill keeps the government open for now, but it would set a pre-Christmas shutdown when it expired on December 22. The legislation aims at giving negotiators more time to resolve differences.
The bill passed in a 235-193 vote in the House, with 221 Republicans supporting it and 18 opposed. It later passed the Senate in an 81-14 vote.
“We’ll be working together in the next two weeks to find a long-term solution to our funding needs while maintaining fiscal discipline,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said after the House vote.
Trump met Thursday afternoon in the White House with the “Big Four” congressional leaders – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to discuss a strategy to avoid a government shutdown after the short-term bill expires.
Pelosi said lawmakers “will not leave here” without a fix for undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, whose protection under the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals program was terminated three months ago by Trump.
According to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump, Ryan and McConnell said immigration should be negotiated “separately, and not as part of the government funding bill.” She added that the president “reiterated his priorities for ensuring any immigration package ends chain migration, constructs a border wall, and substantially strengthens immigration enforcement to stop illegal immigration and visa overstays.”
Following the meeting, both sides issued statements saying the meeting was “productive” on a number on issues.
Be the first to comment