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THE BIG DEAL–GOP trying to push through $5.7B for border wall. Faced with a conservative revolt and a change of heart from an unpredictable president, House GOP leaders on Thursday altered course and will try to ram through a government spending bill that includes $5.7 billion for the border wall.
{mosads}The new funding package would add two things to the stopgap measure that cleared the Senate by voice vote Wednesday night: $5.7 billion for President Trump’s wall on the Mexican border and $8.7 billion in emergency disaster aid for wildfires, hurricane damage and flooding.
New hurdles: While some Republicans voiced confidence, others remained skeptical it has the necessary support to pass. The $5.7 billion is a non-starter for Democrats and it is also opposed by a number of GOP lawmakers.
And dozens of House absences on Thursday were only complicating the GOP whip effort. In a vote earlier Thursday, there were 42 lawmakers — 23 Republicans and 19 Democrats — who failed to show up for the roll call due to various reasons.
The key number: With roughly 390 voting members, it will require roughly 195 GOP votes to pass the new funding package. Lawmakers have until the end of the day on Friday to get a spending measure through the House and then the Senate to Trump’s desk to avert a partial shutdown.
The new GOP strategy comes after a dramatic day in Washington. Here’s how we got here…
House GOP fights right-wing revolt: The House on Thursday plunged into chaos and the possibility of a Saturday government shutdown suddenly ticked up after an insurrection at a GOP conference meeting left Republican leaders scrambling to find votes for their stopgap spending measure.
The morning after the Senate by voice vote approved a measure to keep the government open through Feb. 8, rank-and-file House members expressed outrage that the measure did not include disaster relief or $5 billion in funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall.
“The majority of Republicans are not currently pleased with the play call,” Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told The Hill. “There’s a revolt from the rank-and-file members.” Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona and Mike Lillis tell us more here.
GOP leaders rushed to the White House where Trump delivered an ultimatum: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that Trump will not sign a stopgap spending bill over concerns about border security, a decision that significantly increases the risk of a government shutdown.
“The president informed us that he will not sign the bill,” Ryan told reporters at the White House after meeting with Trump.
Trump later dug in on his demand for wall funding, raising the shutdown risk: President Trump on Thursday dug in on his demand for border wall funding in a must-pass spending bill, heightening the risk of a government shutdown.
“I’ve made my position very clear: Any measure that funds the government must include border security,” the president said at a signing ceremony for the farm bill.
“It is the solemn promise to protect and defend the United States of America and it is our sacred obligation,” he said. “We have no choice.”
Trump said his push for a border wall “is not merely my campaign promise,” but is also “the promise every lawmaker made.”
The Hill’s Jordan Fabian gets us up to speed here.
Reactions:
- “We’ll see what they come up with, in terms of disaster assistance. But in terms of wall funding, that’s a non-starter. I think they know that.” — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
- “Trump’s allies in the House can pound their fists on the table all they want but it’s not going to get a wall. They can, having caught the Trump temper tantrum fever, jump up and down, yell and scream. It’s not going to get a wall.” — Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
- “No. I don’t think the votes are [there], ugh. We can’t have a government shutdown, period.” — Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
LEADING THE DAY
Stocks plunge amid shutdown chaos in Washington: Stocks plummeted Thursday as the federal government edged closer to a partial shutdown and traders braced for the impact of further Federal Reserve rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 464 points, or 2 percent, falling to a 14-month low, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both slid 1.6 percent.
The Nasdaq’s losses briefly sunk the composite into a bear market — a 20-percent drop from its latest high-point.
Thursday’s sell-off brought stocks to new lows for 2018. Without a rebound, stocks are on track for their worst December in decades. It would also represent the first time since the Great Depression that markets closed the year lower than they started. The Hill’s Niv Elis and I tell you what’s driving today’s downturn here.
- The losses amplified a Wednesday decline triggered by the Fed hiking interest rates and projecting two further rate hikes in 2019. Traders had hoped the Fed would hint toward a pause in hikes, which suppress the stock market by driving up borrowing costs and squeezing corporate profit margins.
- The battered stock market plunged further as President Trump signaled that he may not sign a funding extension to prevent a partial government shutdown starting Saturday because it does not fund his proposed border wall.
DOJ charges Chinese nationals in cyber espionage campaign: The Trump administration on Thursday charged two hackers linked to China’s intelligence and security agency for engaging in a decade-long cyber espionage campaign against dozens of companies in the United States and around the world.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and other top officials unveiled the charges at the Justice Department, part of an unprecedented international effort coordinated with the United Kingdom and other governments to call China out for theft of trade secrets.
The hackers, said to be part of the Chinese hacking group APT10, allegedly compromised companies across many industries in the U.S. and at least 11 other countries by targeting managed service providers, which hold intellectual property and other sensitive business information. The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant explains here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Bill Rys will be the head of Citigroup Inc.’s Federal Government Affairs team in Washington, D.C., the head of Global Government Affairs, Candi Wolff, announced in an internal memo obtained by The Hill on Thursday.
- President Trump has kept an almost obsessive watch on the stock market as it has lurched lower in recent weeks, according to The Washington Post.
- Tobacco giant Altria announced Thursday that it is investing $12.8 billion in startup e-cigarette company Juul Labs.
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross twice submitted sworn statements to ethics officials saying he had divested stock that he in fact still owned, according to the Center for Public Integrity.