Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump plans to meet with the four main leaders of Congress in the White House on Monday, one day before the deadline to finance the federal government or face a closure.
The meeting involving the president of the Mike Johnson representatives and the leader of the majority of the Senate John Thune, as well as the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, and the leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, were confirmed on Saturday by a White House official and two other people familiar with the planning. Anonymity was granted to discuss a meeting that has not been announced.
“Donald Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval office. As we have said repeatedly, the Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone who negotiates a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the US people,” said Schumer and Jeffries in a joint statement on Saturday night. “We are resolved in our determination to avoid a government closure and address the republican health crisis. Time is running out.”
The meeting was first reported by PunchBowl News.
The parties have been in a confrontation for days since the Democrats, namely in the Senate, have refused to offer the necessary votes to approve a measure of financing that would keep the government open beyond Tuesday.
In the absence of any action, a closure would begin at 12:01 am et on Wednesday.
The Democrats had secured a meeting with Trump until the Republican leaders intervened and the president canceled it. But Schumer spoke privately with Thune on Friday, pushing the majority leader to get a scheduled Trump meeting due to the funding deadline that is approaching, according to a Schumer assistant.
“As Base Democrats begin to question the unsustainable position of their leadership, Senator Schumer is clearly becoming nervous,” said Ryan Wrasse, spokesman for Thune, on Saturday night. “There is an easy way out, and they will have the opportunity to take it next week.”
The Democrats, believing that they have leverage, have insisted on the key provisions of medical care in exchange for their votes. They want an extension of the subsidies that help the revenues of low and medium income to buy insurance through the Law of Health Care at Low Price. The Democrats also insist on reversing the clippings to Medicaid that the signature tax measure of the Republican Party was included earlier this year.
Republicans say that these demands are not accessories and that they are willing to have a conversation with the Democrats about these separated issues from government financing conversations. The Republican party is asking for a direct extension of current funds for seven weeks.
At the beginning of the week, Johnson acknowledged that he had encouraged Trump not to meet with Democratic leaders.
“He and I talked about that yesterday and the day before. I said, look, when they do their job, once they do the basic government work of maintaining the open government, as president, then he can have a meeting with him,” Johnson said in the Mike & McCarty program in the state of his house in Louisiana. “Of course, it could be productive at that time, but at this time, this is just a loss of its time.”
And Thune, RS.D., had said at the beginning of the week that “he had a conversation with the president” and offered his opinion about the meeting, which he refused to reveal. “But I think the president speaks for himself, and I think he concluded that the meeting would not be productive,” said Thune.
Democrats have expressed their confidence that voters would blame Trump and Republicans for any interruption in federal services, although this is not guaranteed.
The Republicans, on the other hand, had directed towards the work week with plans in the Senate to continue showing the refusal of the Democrats to accept the measure of Stopgap, while the Republican Party of the House of Representatives planned to stay away from Washington in a show of their own lack of will to involve democratic alternatives.
That also came with possible political inconveniences for the Republicans of the Chamber, since the Democrats hammered them for being, as Jeffries said, “on vacation.”
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