The year’s most divisive fights in Congress are set to converge in a bitter partisan clash in December that could result in a U.S. government shutdown.
The unresolved battles -- over a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration, health-care subsidies, Planned Parenthood and storm relief -- are hanging over talks on must-pass spending legislation to keep the government open after Dec. 8. The spending measure is at risk of becoming so weighted with controversial items that it collapses.
Democratic Leverage
There’s still a chance the two parties can agree on a deal. Senate Democrats have leverage because spending bills require 60 votes for passage while Republicans have a slim 52-48 majority.
The biggest looming dispute is over immigration. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California say they want Trump to make good on a tentative deal they struck last month to allow about 800,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally as children to stay with a possible path to citizenship. In exchange, Democrats would support stronger border security -- without the wall that Trump promised in his 2016 campaign.
The White House angered both top Democrats this month by calling for “complete construction” of the wall and more immigration enforcement. Schumer and Pelosi say the administration can expect broad Democratic opposition to wall funding in a year-end spending plan.
The wall fight alone could lead to a government shutdown. Trump upped the ante by saying in May that a "good shutdown" may be necessary to win approval of $1.6 billion he wants to fund the wall. The money is in the House and Senate draft spending bills for Homeland Security, meaning it will be on the table in any omnibus negotiati
|