Lawmakers leave as shutdown looms

Democrats refuse $5B for border wall

House Republican leaders sent their members home for a six-day break Thursday without revealing any plan to avoid a looming government shutdown.

In Paul Ryan's waning days as House speaker, leaders are wavering about whether to try to pass a spending bill with the $5 billion President Donald Trump is demanding for a wall at the Mexican border. Senate Republicans also haven't announced any plan to fund the government.

At one point, third-ranking House Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Thursday that the House would "move a bill" containing the $5 billion. But minutes later, second-ranking GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California responded to a reporters' question with, "I didn't hear him say that," and then added, "Interesting."

McCarthy said plans for next week were "fluid and subject to change." He said lawmakers likely would be asked to return to Washington on Wednesday evening.

Funding for some agencies including the Department of Homeland Security is set to run out after Dec. 21, and Trump says he'll block any bill funding those agencies unless he gets the money for the wall. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, in line to become speaker in January, had a contentious meeting Tuesday with Trump in the Oval Office, where the president said he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security."

House appropriations committee members Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, chairman of the subcommittee on agriculture, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas and Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida said Thursday that no plan to avoid a shutdown has been presented to the rank and file.

Schumer insisted Thursday that Democrats won't provide the border funds, but that they're ready to pass spending bills to keep government agencies open.

"If we wind up with a shutdown, it will be entirely the president's fault," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "I want to be crystal clear: There will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall. It's done."

Pelosi told the president during Tuesday's meeting that House Republicans don't even have the votes to pass a bill with the $5 billion. The GOP will lose its House majority status on Jan. 3, and a number of members who are retiring, were defeated or won other offices haven't been showing up for votes.

Aderholt, who represents a district where Trump won by an overwhelming margin, said he would support a Republican-only spending bill but it's unclear whether it would pass.

"For people in my district border security is the paramount issue," Aderholt said. "I know that is not true in every district."

Some moderate House Republicans said they would consider voting for the $5 billion in wall money if it moves the process along.

"It's not my first choice but I would consider it," said retiring New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo. "I didn't come to Washington to ever shut the government down."

Anti-immigration hard-liner Rep. Steve King of Iowa said every day that goes by makes it more certain that Pelosi's new Democratic majority will pass the next spending bill and will use that leverage to insert Democratic priorities in January.

"That's a bad thing," King said. "We should act now while we still have the majority."

Meanwhile, Trump claimed Thursday that "money we save" from a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada would make good on his long-standing promise to have Mexico pay for the southern border wall.

"I often stated, 'One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall,'" Trump wrote on Twitter. "This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement], is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA [North American Free Trade Agreement] deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!"

Mexican officials have said there was no discussion in the trade-deal negotiations of mechanisms under which Mexico would pay for the wall.

On Thursday, Pelosi and Schumer ridiculed Trump for his assertion.

"It doesn't make any sense," Pelosi told reporters at a news conference. "Maybe he doesn't understand how a trade agreement works. ... I think the Oval Office is an evidence-free zone."

Schumer, meanwhile, suggested Thursday on the Senate floor that if Mexico is truly funding the wall, Congress does not need to spend any money on it.

"Mr. President, if you say Mexico will pay for the wall through [the trade agreement], which they won't, then I guess we don't have to," Schumer said.

About 75 percent of the government's $1.2 trillion fiscal 2019 operating budget is already funded, so the effects of a shutdown would be limited.

Information for this article was contributed by Erik Wasson and Laura Litvan of Bloomberg News; and by John Wagner, Damian Paletta, Erica Werner and David J. Lynch of The Washington Post.

A Section on 12/14/2018

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