The charged politics around funding a southern border wall has both parties struggling to keep the government funded as the clock ticks toward a partial shutdown at week’s end, the Wall Street Journal reports. With seven spending bills set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Republicans and White House officials are discussing a two-week spending measure that would push the fight into next year. President Trump hasn’t signaled whether he would be open to a short-term extension. Democrats said Trump’s boast he would be “proud” to shut down the government over wall funding saddled him with the political blame if one occurs.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Sunday that Trump “is not going to get the wall in any form.” Spending bills need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate, where Republicans hold 51 seats. White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said the president was ready to shut down the government if Democrats refused to budge on funding. In a shutdown, many federal employees would work without a guarantee of pay, though Congress typically votes later to pay them retroactively. More than 420,000 federal employees, including 41,000 law-enforcement officials and up to 88 percent of the Homeland Security Department staff, would be working without pay, estimates the Senate Appropriations Committee Democratic staff.