President Trump today met with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.–chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of a House-Senate conference committee coming up with recommendations for border security funding–and outlined his demands for a funding deal as the Feb. 15 deadline for another partial Federal government shutdown looms.
Sen. Shelby told reporters after the meeting he believes the President will support a bipartisan congressional deal to keep the government funded but only if it meets his parameters for a deal. But the senator declined to discuss details of the President’s demands.
President Trump has been demanding $5.7 billion in funding to support construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and it is unknown if he is willing to accept less than that.
“If we can work within some of the parameters that we talked about today–that we’ll keep to ourselves–I think he would sign it,” Sen. Shelby said when asked about a potential deal.
“We hope we’ve got a deal. If we haven’t got a deal, we probably won’t get a deal,” he added.
A short-term spending bill signed on Jan. 25 has allowed some Federal agencies to operate until Feb. 15 when a new appropriations bill will need to be signed in order to prevent another partial shutdown. Most Federal government operations remain funded through the end of September.
In an interview with Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D. Calif., said that Republicans would not support another partial shutdown and predicted that will be avoided.
“There will not be another shutdown. No, it’s not going to happen,” she said.
Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that Feb. 8 could be the effective deadline to get a deal done.
