US government shutdown to continue despite last-minute Senate negotiations

The United States Capitol building in Washington DC, USA. Photo / 123RF

The US Senate has adjourned for the night without a deal to end the government shutdown, and a vote has been postponed until noon Monday.

The government shutdown will continue into the workweek after frantic efforts by a bipartisan group of moderate senators Sunday failed to produce an agreement to reopen agencies Monday morning.

"We have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward that is acceptable to both sides," Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he would be willing to start debating immigration legislation if an agreement was not otherwise reached by early February.

Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown had rested on the frantic efforts of a bipartisan group of moderate senators who aimed to broker a deal Sunday to reopen agencies before the start of the workweek.

But by evening the proposal — which would link a three-week extension of government funding to the consideration of an immigration bill in the Senate — proved not enough to quickly break the impasse without the support of top party leaders or President Trump, who showed no sign of backing off his hard line on immigration.

The effects of the shutdown over the weekend were relatively limited — halting trash pickup on National Park Service property, for instance, and switching off some government employees' cellphones.

But a shutdown that continues into Monday is expected to mean hundreds of thousands of workers will stay home and key federal agencies will be affected.

As the shutdown threatened to stretch into its first workweek, politicians pointed fingers, states scrambled to fill the gaps and people across the country rolled their eyes at yet another example of US government gridlock.

But for the Washington region, which boasts the largest concentration of federal employees and contractors in the country, the shutdown could have particularly serious consequences.

Like farmers with their eyes to the sky during a drought, many in the region began nervously wondering how long the shutdown would last, and how much it would cost them.

"No one has more to lose from shutdown brinkmanship than the capital region," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in an email.

"If you viewed this as a company town, it's like the factory shut down, and we don't know when it's going to reopen," Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said.

Up to a quarter of the region's workforce of 3.2 million people could be affected by the shutdown, according to Stephen Fuller, an economist at George Mason University. He noted that 367,000 federal employees and 450,000 federal contractors live in the Washington area. He said 25 per cent to 30 perc ent of the region's economy is dependent on federal payroll and procurement spending.

"It's hard to point to an economy in the country where one company represents between 25 and 30 per cent of local GDP," said Fuller, who last year founded the Stephen S. Fuller Institute for Research on the Washington Region's Economic Future.

Connolly cited statistics showing the region could lose an estimated US$200 million per day in economic productivity, including the losses for small businesses catering to government employees.

"You know if you were running a lunch shop near the IRS and 80 per cent of the IRS workforce is not going to work, you've lost a lot of your business for the duration of the shutdown," he said. "They really have no recourse. That's what so very sad, and some of these are family-run businesses."

Passport and visa applications could go unprocessed, federal contractors could see payments delayed, and the Internal Revenue Service could slow its preparations for the coming tax season.

The bipartisan group scrambled for a compromise, but the decision ultimately belonged to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"We're trying to be helpful in showing them that there is a path forward," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who hosted more than a dozen fellow moderates in her office for an early afternoon meeting.

Sunday began with more of the partisan posturing that marked much of the previous week, delivered on the morning news programs, on the House and Senate floors, and in a presidential tweet.

Trump wrote that if the "stalemate continues," then Republicans should use the "Nuclear Option" to rewrite Senate rules and try to pass a long-term spending bill with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed to pass most legislation — a notion Trump has previously floated to McConnell's repeated dismissal.

The president otherwise remained uncharacteristically quiet, heeding the advice of senior advisers who argued that he has the upper hand over Schumer and the Democrats and that they would soon be forced to capitulate.

On the Senate floor, Schumer showed no signs of caving and kept pressure on Republicans.

"Not only do they not consult us, but they can't even get on the same page with their own president," he said.

"The congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with President Trump; President Trump tells me to figure it out with the congressional leaders. This political Catch-22, never seen before, has driven our government to dysfunction."

As the clock ticked toward the 1 am Monday vote — set by McConnell in part because of arcane Senate rules, in part to keep round-the-clock pressure on Democrats — the moderates made the most visible progress toward a deal. Among the participants in the Collins meeting were a number of Democrats who are seeking reelection in states Trump won in 2016 — five of whom voted Friday against sparking the shutdown in the first place.

"There are more than just moderate Democrats or conservative Democrats — a majority of Democrats want it to end," said Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

All of that weighed on lawmakers who milled around the Capitol, many in flannel shirts, sweater vests and other casual garb.

"If it doesn't happen tonight, it's going to get a lot harder tomorrow," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has pressed for action on immigration legislation and met with the moderates' group Sunday.

No firm proposal emerged from the meeting, but senators discussed a broad outline that could unlock a deal: modify the temporary spending bill now under consideration in the Senate to expire on Feb. 8, and then find some way to guarantee that immigration legislation moves forward in the interim.

The White House has said it supports the plan for funding through February 8 but has been wary of making concessions on immigration. While legislation protecting DACA recipients could probably move through the Senate with Democrats and a handful of Republicans supporting it, Trump has rejected proposals along those lines and House GOP leaders are under fierce pressure not to bring up any bill that a majority of Republicans would reject.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," White House legislative affairs director Marc Short declined to provide assurances that the president would guarantee a vote on an immigration bill in exchange for a short-term spending deal. "We want to have the right resolution," he said.

Other Republicans also saw little advantage in making any concessions to advance legislation that would provide protections for "dreamers" — young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, 690,000 of whom face potential deportation after Trump cancelled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

In a brief closed-door meeting of House Republicans, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reassured lawmakers that there would be no negotiations on the issue as long as the government remained shuttered, affirming the White House position.

Cornyn told reporters that the deadline for action to address DACA remained March 5, when the last of the program's participants will see their protected status expire.

"We're more than happy to have a vote on it well before the deadline. We've committed to that," Cornyn said. "But turning the agenda over to Democrats who just shut down the government makes no sense to me. It just seems like it encourages bad behavior."

While there have been talks since early last year about trading DACA protections for more border security funding, as many Republicans want, negotiations have failed to produce a deal.

Democrats said they made a significant concession over the weekend, agreeing to put major funding behind Trump's promised border wall, something that has been anathema to liberals since the 2016 election.

Schumer on Sunday said that in a Friday meeting, Trump "picked a number for the wall, and I accepted it."

"It would be hard to imagine a much more reasonable compromise," he added. "All along, the president saying, 'Well, I'll do DACA, dreamers, in return for the wall.' He's got it. He can't take yes for an answer. That's why we're here."

Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), one of the most outspoken Democratic advocates for immigrant rights, also said in a Sunday appearance on ABC's "This Week" that he would agree to the funding.

"I think the wall is a monumental waste of taxpayer money," he said. "Having said that . . . if that's what the hostage takers [demand for] the dreamers, if that's their ransom call, I say pay it."

But the concession was rejected on two fronts. Doubts remained that the Democratic rank and file would agree to wall funding — even with the blessing of Schumer and Gutiérrez. Asked about a deal that could deliver Trump as much as $20 billion for the border wall, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scoffed, "Oh, come on."

"None of us is at a table where they're talking about $20 billion," she said. "Should there be fencing? Should there be technology? Should they mow the grass so that people can't hide in it? Should there be some bricks and mortar someplace? Let's see what works."

And Republicans scoffed at Schumer's claim that he offered Trump precisely what was demanded. The Democratic offer, they said, fell short of the full, immediate funding the president sought and instead involved yearly installments of funding that could be subject to future shutdown threats.

Moreover, Republicans have demanded concessions on other aspects of the immigration system, including an end to rules authorizing permanent legal immigrants to sponsor family members for legal status and an end to a "diversity visa" program that distributes visas based on a lottery system.

The wall is "one of the three legs of this three-legged stool," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a key House conservative. "I'm glad to hear that there is some movement there, but there's a couple of other legs of that stool that have to be put forth."

The battle lines over immigration have become especially firm as spending talks falter. Republican leaders have cast the shutdown as the product of Democrats' prioritization of undocumented immigrants over American citizens.

But a debate has opened up in the party about how far to push that argument. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) questioned an online adfrom Trump's campaign that said the president's immigration proposals are "right" and "Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants."

"I don't know if that's necessarily productive," Ryan said on CBS.

- additional reporting Washington Post