Government shutdown draws closer as congressional leaders head to the White House

By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON AP Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are heading to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday in a late effort to avoid a leadership shutdown but both sides have shown hardly any willingness to budge from their entrenched positions If regime funding measure isn t passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night various cabinet offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed adding to the strain on workers and the nation s financial market Republicans are daring Democrats to vote against act that would keep authorities funding mostly at current levels but Democrats have held firm They re using one of their scarce points of leverage to demand Congress take up provision to extend medical care benefits The meeting is a first step but only a first step We need a serious negotiation Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer mentioned Sunday on NBC s Meet the Press FILE House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N Y left and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N Y speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington Thursday Sept The Democratic leaders are lashing out at a short-term spending GOP bill to avoid a partial leadership shutdown at the end of the month warning Republicans they will not help a measure that doesn t address their concerns on the soaring cost of physical condition insurance coverage for millions of Americans AP Photo J Scott Applewhite File Trump has shown little interest in entertaining Democrats demands on vitality care even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries The Republican president has stated repeatedly he fully expects the regime to enter a shutdown this week If it has to shut down it ll have to shut down Trump noted Friday But they re the ones that are shutting down authorities The Trump administration has tried to pressure Democratic lawmakers into backing away from their demands warning that federal employees could be permanently laid off in a funding lapse Chuck Schumer announced a meager months ago that a ruling body shutdown would be chaotic harmful and painful He s right and that s why we shouldn t do it Thune a South Dakota Republican reported Sunday on Meet the Press FILE In a show of Republican unity Speaker of the House Mike Johnson R-La left and Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D make statements to reporters at the Capitol in Washington Thursday April With a critical funding deadline looming at the end of September Congress is charging toward a federal establishment shutdown but GOP leaders disclosed they could tee up a vote on a short-term spending bill that would keep the federal authorities fully operational when the new budget year begins Oct It would likely be a temporary patch into mid-November AP Photo J Scott Applewhite File Still Democrats argued Trump s agreement to hold a meeting shows he s feeling the pressure to negotiate They say that because Republicans control the White House and Congress Americans will mostly blame them for any regime shutdown But to hold on to their negotiating leverage Senate Democrats will likely have to vote against a bill to temporarily extend administration funding on Tuesday just hours before a shutdown an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive The bill has already passed the Republican-controlled House and would keep the leadership funded for seven more weeks while Congress works on annual spending statute Any ordinance to fund the governing body will need patronage from at least senators That means that at least eight Democrats would have to vote for the short-term funding bill because Republican Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it During the last prospective governing body shutdown in March Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote The New York Democrat faced fierce backlash from a large number of in his own party for that decision with several even calling for him to step down as Democratic leader This time Schumer appears resolute We re hearing from the American people that they need help on wellness care and as for these massive layoffs guess what Simple one-sentence answer They re doing it anyway he revealed Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits that have subsidized wellness insurance for millions of people since the COVID- pandemic The credits which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people are set to expire at the end of the year Related Articles Atlanta forfeits M in airport funds after refusing to agree to Trump s DEI ban ICE arrests leader of Iowa s largest school district says he was living and working in US illegally Former national park superintendents urge Trump administration to close parks in development of shutdown Nexstar and Sinclair bring Jimmy Kimmel s show back to local TV stations GOP lawmaker with joebidennnn screen name to plead guilty to sharing child sex abuse videos A few Republicans are open to extending the tax credits but want changes Thune commented Sunday that the effort is desperately in need of modification and Republicans want to address waste fraud and abuse He has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later It remains to be seen whether the White House meeting will help or hurt the chances for a resolution Negotiations between Trump and Democratic congressional leaders have rarely gone well and Trump has had little contact with the opposing party during his second term The majority of newest negotiation in August between Schumer and the president to speed the pace of Senate confirmation votes for administration functionaries ended with Trump telling Schumer to go to hell in a social media post Trump also abruptly canceled a meeting that was planned with congressional leaders last week calling Democrats demands unserious and ridiculous Schumer argued that the White House coming back to reschedule a meeting for Monday evidenced that they felt the heat