Top Dem introduces short-term spending bills to reopen government

The House this week is slated to take up two continuing resolutions (CRs) aimed at temporarily reopening the government as negotiations remain stalled over funding for President Trump’s border wall.

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) introduced the stopgap measures Monday, the first of which would provide funding for closed government agencies through Feb. 1 and the second of which would provide funding through Feb. 28. Neither measure would provide additional funding for the barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“The House has done its job and passed six pieces of legislation to reopen the government, but Senate Republicans refuse to take yes for an answer and end the shutdown,” Lowey said in a statement. “It is critical that we reopen the federal government, and these two new Continuing Resolutions offer President Trump and Senate Republicans additional options to end the shutdown while allowing time for negotiation on border security and immigration policy. We should pass them into law without delay.”{mosads}

The shorter-term CR will be taken up Tuesday, while the longer-term CR is expected to come to the floor Thursday, a Democratic leadership aide confirmed. 

The upper chamber is not expected to take up the legislation if it makes it through the House, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed not to bring any spending bills to the floor that the president won’t agree to sign. Trump has made it clear he won’t support any funding measure that doesn’t provide ample funding for border security. 

The Democratic-led House passed four individual spending bills with minimal bipartisan support last week in an attempt to place pressure on GOP lawmakers to break with the administration’s demand for wall funding. Prior to that, it passed a legislative package to fund the remaining government agencies through the end of the fiscal year and a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 1. 

On Day 24 of the partial shutdown, negotiations remain stalled as parties remain at a standoff over the border wall. Trump has repeatedly called for $5.7 billion in border security funding — a number that far exceeds what Democrats are willing to agree to. 

Democrats have alleged Trump is holding the government hostage, while Republicans argue Democratic leaders have failed to present a reasonable counteroffer to what the president has put forward.