The new Democratically controlled House of Representatives late Thursday voted 241-190 to end Donald Trump’s manufactured government shutdown, passing a measure that does not include any money for the president’s border wall. Nancy Pelosi, who retook the gavel earlier in the day, did not mince words about the Democrats’ willingness to budge on Trump’s pet project: “We’re not doing a wall,” the House Speaker told reporters Thursday evening, describing the proposed barrier as an “immorality” and a “waste of money.” “Does anybody have any doubt about that? We are not doing a wall.”
Pelosi, of course, has appeared to have the upper hand since the president torpedoed a bipartisan funding bill last month. She and Chuck Schumer drove the president to take ownership of the partial shutdown before it had begun, and the standoff has unified Democrats behind Pelosi while seeming to weaken Trump’s standing with Republicans. Still, Trump is digging in, threatening to veto any bill that doesn’t include cash for the “good old fashioned wall” he initially promised would be paid for by Mexico. Mitch McConnell, who has been conspicuously absent from the showdown fight, has essentially said Democrats’ funding bill is a nonstarter in the Republican-controlled Senate. “The Senate will not take up any proposal that does not have a real chance of passing this chamber and getting a presidential signature,” the Senate Majority Leader said on the floor of the chamber Thursday. “Let’s not waste the time. Let’s not get off on the wrong foot, with House Democrats using their new platform to produce political statements rather than serious solutions.”
Contrary to McConnell’s hand-wringing, Democrats have already put forth “serious solutions”—including measures to reopen the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, and to reopen the Department of Homeland Security through February 8, that were approved by the lower chamber. McConnell, on the other hand, has faced backlash from his own party over his forbearance, with some Senate Republicans calling on him to take active steps toward ending the shutdown as it coasted into its third week. “It would be great to have [the measures] signed into law because there is not great controversy over them, and at least we’d be getting those workers back to work,” moderate Republican Susan Collins said on Thursday, while Republican Senator Cory Gardner told the Hill that the Senate “should pass a continuing resolution to get the government back open,” and called for Republicans to accept a deal even if it doesn’t give Trump what he wants.
Yet even if the Senate falls in line, it’s not clear that Trump would back down. He has already signaled that his primary concern is saving face, reportedly telling Schumer in a meeting Wednesday that he would be “foolish” to relent and open some parts of the government, even those that have nothing to do with immigration. Perhaps recognizing its poor bargaining position, the administration appears to be floating the possibility of cutting a deal on DACA in exchange for border-wall funding. Both Sean Hannity, one of Trump’s closest confidants, and Vice President Mike Pence suggested on Fox News Thursday that such a deal was on the table. An exchange could be attractive to Democrats, who have been seeking protections for Dreamers since Trump blew up the program. But a similar trade-off flopped last year, and it’s not clear it would succeed now, given the hard negotiating stance the newly powerful Democrats have taken in the current showdown.
In the meantime, about 800,000 federal workers are caught up in the fight, with little hope for a quick conclusion. As The New York Times points out, the president has not publicly discussed the plight of the hundreds of thousands of workers currently forgoing paychecks thanks to his tantrum. That he’s willing to ignore them in favor of prolonging a manufactured crisis is perhaps the only leverage Trump has left.
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