By Kristina Peterson, Natalie Andrews and Siobhan Hughes
WASHINGTON -- The Senate rejected a one-month spending bill
early Saturday, triggering the shutdown of many government services
and setting off a partisan fight over who would bear the political
consequences.
In a dramatic night of failed negotiations, Senate leaders
extended the vote on the House's short-term bill for more than an
hour late Friday night as lawmakers attempted to strike a deal to
avoid the shutdown. But efforts to agree to a stopgap measure
floundered, leaving Congress with no way to avert the first major
shutdown of a government under one party's control.
The bill was blocked in a 50-49 vote, well short of the 60 votes
it needed. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) didn't vote because he was
at home undergoing cancer treatment.
Five Democrats voted for the bill, which five Republicans
opposed, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.,
Ky.), so that he could bring it up for another vote later.
"What we have just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision
by Senate Democrats to shove aside millions of Americans for the
sake of irresponsible political games," Mr. McConnell said on the
Senate floor after the vote.
After the vote, Mr. McConnell indicated he would take steps to
set up a later vote on a three-week spending bill, keeping the
government funded through Feb. 8. But Senate Democrats are
currently opposed to it, leaving lawmakers with no path to reopen
the government.
Although a handful of Republicans opposed the spending bill,
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blamed Democrats
for the shutdown, saying "This is the behavior of obstructionist
losers, not legislators." The partial government shutdown coincides
with the first anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration
on Saturday.
The shutdown marked the culmination of a fight that began in
September, when Mr. Trump ended a program shielding the young
illegal immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. He gave
Congress until March 5 to hash out a replacement. Democrats sought
to use their leverage on the spending bill to secure legal
protections for the Dreamers.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber's Democratic leader,
blamed the White House for the shutdown.
"The dynamic of the past few weeks, during which the
congressional Republicans looked to the president for guidance and
the president provided none, prevailed again today, unfortunately,"
Mr. Schumer said.
In a day-long scramble to avoid the shutdown that was due at
midnight, Mr. Schumer worked Friday with Mr. Trump to reach a
broader resolution over the immigration and spending issues that
has paralyzed Capitol Hill. Over cheeseburgers at the White House,
the two New Yorkers talked about the parameters of a far-ranging
deal.
During the lunch, Mr. Schumer indicated he would be willing to
provide more than the $1.6 billion for the construction of the
border wall that the administration had initially requested for
this year, in exchange for protections for Dreamers that would
include a path to citizenship, according to someone familiar with
the negotiations.
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Trump also talked about boosting military
spending close to $700 billion, a top priority of Republicans. The
meeting ended on a positive note, without any commitments, and Mr.
Trump said he would talk to Republican leaders. But later in the
day, Mr. Trump's tone changed and White House chief of staff John
Kelly called Mr. Schumer to say the ideas under discussion were too
liberal.
"What happened to that president" who was eager for a deal, Mr.
Schumer asked on the Senate floor early Saturday morning. "He
backed off at the first sign of pressure." The White House didn't
immediately return a request for comment on the negotiations.
One senator briefed on the meeting between the president and Mr.
Schumer said it didn't go well, putting the onus back on Congress
to find a path forward. Another person familiar with the meeting
said it wasn't contentious, but it made clear that neither side
would budge.
On Friday night, senators disagreed over whether a stopgap
measure should extend beyond Jan. 30, the date of the State of the
Union address. They also couldn't reach an agreement over whether
protections for the Dreamers should be included in a must-pass bill
or considered separately, lawmakers and aides said.
Both chambers were expected to be in session Saturday,
continuing discussions over how to resolve the underlying disputes
over immigration and government funding.
Much of the government's work is expected to continue despite
the shutdown, as the Trump administration aims to apply what senior
administration officials called flexibility to shutdown rules that
contain a variety of exceptions.
Social Security payments would be deposited as 53,000 workers
for that agency stay on the job, as would Medicare reimbursements,
because the payments don't rely on an annual appropriation. In
addition, Mr. Trump's agencies aim to go further than previous
shutdowns and existing plans on the book, keeping agencies like the
Environmental Protection Agency open with unused funds, as well as
national parks.
Mr. Trump's own activities, including planned travel to the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, can continue under an
exemption for activity required by the president to carry out his
constitutional duties. However, the president's scheduled departure
for his Florida resort on Friday afternoon was canceled.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis isn't halting a planned trip to
Asia this weekend; the military will generally continue operations,
as will the Department of Homeland Security under exceptions for
essential activities.
The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget,
Mick Mulvaney, said Friday that his agency intended a different
approach from the one taken by the Obama administration in
2013.
"We are going to manage the shutdown differently; we are not
going to weaponize it," Mr. Mulvaney said.
As the hours ticked down Friday, both parties worked to ensure
any political fallout would fall on the other side of the aisle in
a year when control of both chambers is up for grabs in the fall's
midterm elections. Democrats stressed that Republicans control both
chambers of Congress, as well as the White House.
"Their ability to govern is so tremendously in question right
now," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) said.
Republicans chastised Democrats for derailing the spending bill
in the Senate over an immigration debate that faces a later
deadline.
Mr. Trump said in a tweet that Democrats had sought a shutdown
"in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and
what they are doing for our booming economy," referring to the tax
overhaul passed last year.
Still, Republicans worried that their party would shoulder an
unfair portion of the blame, given that they control both chambers
of Congress and the White House.
"We can say the Democrats voted against" funding the government,
said Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.). "On the other hand, we control
everything."
Lawmakers said early Saturday they weren't sure how this
shutdown would compare to the most recent one, in 2013, which
lasted 16 full days.
"I cannot think of one that really compares to this," said
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the longest serving Democrat in the
Senate. "We've never had an instance where the president changes
his mind all the time, and then says we ought to have a good
shutdown. I can't think of any president, Republican or Democrat,
who wanted a shutdown."
Mr. Trump said on Twitter last May that a government shutdown
might be needed to get his priorities through Congress.
--Siobhan Hughes, Louise Radnofsky and Rebecca Ballhaus
contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com, Natalie
Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com and Siobhan Hughes at
siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2018 02:31 ET (07:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.