ouse Republican leaders are hoping the president boosts their leverage in spending talks by endorsing their position on key policy fights.

Lawmakers have not even agreed to spending levels, making it likely that they will have to pass a stopgap funding bill to avoid a shutdown.

Republican leaders hope Trump supports their plan to raise defense spending caps that were imposed in a 2011 budget deal, according to a source familiar with their thinking.

They also want Trump to back their demand that immigration be kept separate from any stopgap spending measure.

Republicans and Democrats have squabbled for weeks over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era initiative that allowed young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to live and work in the country.

Trump set off a scramble on Capitol Hill when he terminated the program earlier this year.

Many Democrats are threatening to withhold their support from a spending bill if the DACA provisions are not included, raising the risk of a shutdown.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday those Democrats are trying to “hold the government hostage.”

Democrats say they won’t back down from their demands on immigration. They also plan to push Trump to back a bipartisan deal to fund the government, extend community health center funding, approve new disaster relief and reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“There is a bipartisan path to getting there, and we hope that we can make progress on all of those issues,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...week-for-trump