As of Monday night, even Senate Republican leaders did not know President Donald Trump’s plan to avoid a government shutdown amid an impasse over his proposed border wall.
President Donald Trump and Congress have until Friday at midnight to dodge a partial government shutdown. But the president and lawmakers appear no closer to breaking an impasse over funding Trump’s proposed border wall.
A week has passed since Trump said he would be “proud” to close parts of the government during an Oval Office fracas with Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. The Democrats say Trump has not responded to their two proposals to keep the seven unfunded U. S. agencies running.
As of Monday night, even Senate Republican leaders did not know the president’s plan. They appeared to wait for a signal from Trump — who made his case for a wall in a Monday tweet, but did not speak during the day about efforts to strike a deal.
“If there’s a plan, I think at the moment it’s the president and the Democrats trying to figure out what they can agree upon,” said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and the third ranking GOP senator, according to Politico. He added that “this is going to have to build for a few days here before there’s a solution out there.”
Trump has already signed bills into law to fund five government departments, including the sprawling Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services.
