McConnell: There will be no government shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that there will not be a government shutdown over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, arguing “there is no crisis.”

“Look, there’s not going to be a government shutdown. It’s just not going to happen,” McConnell told ABC’s “This Week.” 

{mosads}McConnell argued that since President Trump has given Congress until March to work on a fix to DACA, there is no emergency that would require a shutdown.

“I don’t think the Democrats would be very smart to say they want to shut down the government over a non-emergency that we can address any time between now and March,” McConnell said. “That’s a very untenable position.”

“I can’t imagine that they want to shut down the government over an issue that’s not an emergency,” he added.

The Trump administration in September announced that it would end the Obama-era program, which shields young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation, with a six-month delay to provide Congress with a window to address the issue.