Trump walks out of White House meeting with Democrats
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump walked out of a White House meeting with Democratic leaders on Wednesday when they would not agree to fund his border wall — extending the government shutdown and making it likely hundreds of thousands of federal workers will go without a paycheck this week.
Trump called the White House meeting with Democrats a total “waste of time.” In a social media post, he said that when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would not agree to fund the wall, “I said bye-bye, nothing else works.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said “we just saw a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way.”
Trump met earlier Wednesday with Senate Republicans in an attempt to hold a fracturing caucus together on his request for border wall funding. Meanwhile, House Democrats took up spending bills to open the government by department and end the shutdown, which ended its 19th day.
The president said he has not ruled out declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress and fund the wall, a tactic that even some GOP lawmakers said would face an immediate legal challenge.
“I think we might work a deal, and if we don’t we might go that route,” Trump said.
The president is planning a tour of the Southwest border on Thursday. If the shutdown continues until Friday, about 800,000 federal workers, including 3,521 in Nevada, will miss their first paycheck.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both attended the weekly Senate Republican policy lunch to shore up support for his $5.7 billion request for border wall funding that has kept federal departments and agencies shuttered.
Several Republican senators, including Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Capito of West Virginia, have urged a reopening of federal departments while negotiations continue over border wall spending.
Following the lunch, Trump told reporters, “Republicans are totally unified.”
“They want border security; they want national security,” he said. “They want a wall or a barrier, whichever word you use.”
Democrats dig in
The impasse, which began last year when Republicans controlled all three legislative branches, appeared no closer to breaking as congressional Democrats dug in on their refusal to provide money for an “immoral” and “ineffective” wall.
A bipartisan agreement for the Department of Homeland Security includes $1.3 billion for fencing, technology and drones.
“We can all play games but a wall is a necessity,” Trump said. “If you don’t have the wall it doesn’t matter. A drone isn’t stopping a thousand people running through.”
In a televised speech Tuesday, Trump accused Democrats of not acknowledging the security crisis unfolding at the southern border, although government statistics show the lowest number of apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in years.
Schumer said Trump was using the speech to scare people, but “the fearmongering isn’t working.”
“The shutdown is hurting millions of Americans,” Schumer said.
Pelosi said women and children at the border were not creating a security crisis, and she said the administration has deepened the humanitarian crisis with programs that have separated children from parents of asylum seekers from Central America.
Pressure is mounting on lawmakers as Friday approaches and federal workers face losing their first paycheck. Federal departments are scrambling to provide services while the government is shut down.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for an immediate end to the shutdown, saying the closures are harming the business community and the economy. The aviation industry has also called for the president and Congress to open the government.
Chamber Vice President Neil Bradley said travelers are facing delays, the process of clearing imports “is hindered, and tariff exclusion requests are unprocessed. Safety inspectors are sidelined, mortgage approvals are delayed, and research is halted.”
House Democrats have passed bills that would open portions of the government, and began a series of votes Wednesday to approve four spending bills that could open specific agencies while negotiations continue on border security funding. The first bill passed would fund Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service operations to stop a delay in processing tax refunds.
“We are trying to make it easier for our Republican friends to join us and open the government,” Schumer said.
Feeling the effects
Trump has repeatedly said that many of the federal employees furloughed in the shutdown back his effort to fund border wall construction, but the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Jeffrey David Cox, said that is not the case.
“We want this shutdown-lockout to end this very minute,” Cox told a news conference at the Capitol. “We oppose being held hostage. We oppose being collateral damage.”
Correctional officers nationwide who are being forced to work without pay make between $500 and $700 a week, said Eric Young, with the AFGE council that represents prison guards. He said veterans make up 30 percent to 40 percent of the prison guard workforce.
Withholding pay from these workers, Young said, is “unconscionable.”
About 51,000 Transportation Security Administration workers will miss a paycheck Friday; about 1,000 of those officers and workers are at McCarran International Airport, according to Becky Esquivel, AFGE chief steward for Local 1250 in Las Vegas.
“We take a lot of pride in our work,” Esquivel said, “keeping the flying public safe.”
Transportation officers are under mandate to work during a shutdown, with all leave canceled. Some are being forced to work following medical procedures, or to cancel vacations. And many work “paycheck to paycheck,” Esquivel said.
“We are proud. All we are asking for is to get paid,” she said.
In previous shutdowns, federal workers received back pay for hours missed or work due to government closure. That has not been the case for government contractors.
Many small local businesses feel the pinch when employees are not paid and don’t spend money on goods and services.
The longest government shutdown, in 1995-96, lasted 21 days; the current partial government shutdown will likely break that record.
“We have been negotiating,” Pelosi said. “The White House seems to move the goal posts. Pretty soon these goal posts won’t even be in the stadium.”
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.
