Senators return to the Capitol on Monday evening with just one full day for work ahead of a partial government shutdown, with the Trump administration threatening to use the lapse in appropriations for mass layoffs of federal workers.
Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump just as the Senate is due to return for a scheduled two-day session before the end of the government’s fiscal year. The Yom Kippur holiday begins at sundown on Oct. 1.
The House is scheduled to hold only pro forma sessions until next week, so while House members could be recalled, it’s clear that Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and other House Republican leaders want the ball in the Senate’s court. Unless the House makes an abrupt return or reaches a deal to legislate during a pro forma session, the only real vehicle for avoiding a shutdown is the House-passed seven-week continuing resolution.
But before Johnson meets with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Trump at the White House, the president hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. The two men are also planning a joint news conference that could easily upend the meeting with House and Senate leadership before it even happens.
“[Trump’s] always open to discussion, but he wants to operate in good faith, so he decided to bring us all in,” Johnson said Sunday on CNN. “He wants to talk with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and just try to convince them to follow common sense and do what’s right by the American people. It’s important to point out, the only thing we are trying to do is buy a little time.”
Trump last week called off a planned meeting with just Schumer and Jeffries. A Schumer aide said the meeting got rescheduled, with GOP leaders now included, after Schumer called Thune on Friday and “urged him to get President Trump to meet because the deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching.”
Congressional Democrats say the time is now to address expiring health insurance premium tax credits, as well as to reverse Medicaid cuts. But Thune’s message Sunday was that now is not the time for the debate the Democrats are seeking.
“That doesn’t happen until the end of the year. We can have that conversation. But before we do, release the hostage,” Thune said of expiring health provisions on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Keep the government open, and then let’s have a conversation about those premium tax credits. I’m certainly open to that.”
Blame game begins
The weekend TV circuit featured plenty of advance blame game. Jeffries argued on MSNBC that Democrats would not be found accountable if there’s a shutdown.
“We absolutely do not risk being blamed because the American people will not be fooled by the rhetoric coming from reckless Republicans. Republicans control the House. Republicans control the Senate. Republicans have a president at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Donald Trump,” Jeffries said.
Democratic leaders were not swayed by the White House Office of Management and Budget memo circulated late last week that directed the heads of federal departments and agencies to prepare for mass layoffs through a potential reduction-in-force push if the current appropriations law expires Tuesday night.
The Senate does have another option in the queue aside from leadership-driven proposals, with a procedural vote expected Monday on a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to provide for automatic two-week continuing resolutions.
“My new bill simply provides for automatic two-week rolling continuing resolutions for any department for which an appropriation bill or longer-term continuing resolution hasn’t been passed. This would keep spending flat by prorating the previous year’s spending level,” Johnson wrote in a Sept. 21 Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
In a sign of how long senators may actually expect to be on Capitol Hill, Senate committee activity is scheduled through Wednesday. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up several judicial nominations, including the nomination of Jennifer Lee Mascott to be a circuit judge.
The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has a nomination hearing for a pair of National Labor Relations Board nominees, as well as an assistant secretary of Labor, scheduled for Wednesday morning. The Finance Committee, meanwhile, is scheduled to hear testimony on Wednesday about the taxation of digital assets.
Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.
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