House Budget Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said on Thursday that he believes Democrats want to hand President Trump a shutdown amid ongoing negotiations over a stopgap spending bill.
“I personally think that the Democrats, because the president said he’d be proud to own a shutdown, I think the Democrats would like to hand the president a shutdown,” Womack told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton.
“That’s just based on the feedback I get after his Oval Office meeting with Sen. [Charles] Schumer [(D-N.Y.)] and Rep. [Nancy] Pelosi [(D-Calif.)],” he continued. In that meeting, Trump said he would shut down the government if Congress didn’t send him a spending bill that included border wall funding. The White House later indicated Trump would look to alternative funding options.
“The threat of a veto should force the leadership to go back to the drawing board and say ‘what is it, Mr. President, that you want,’ and we’ll do the best we can to provide a package for you that you can support, vote on that in the House while we still have the majority,” Womack said.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Thursday that Trump said he would not sign a stopgap spending bill that had been passed by the Senate over concerns about border security.
The legislation would have funded the government through Feb. 8 but does not provide additional funding for Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. southern border, which had also prompted outrage among House conservatives.
Democrats have offered to help Republicans pass the stopgap bill so long as it does not include border wall funding.
— Julia Manchester
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