President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats are nearing a deal to avert a US government shutdown as the White House negotiates with Democrats to place new limits on immigration raids that have provoked an national outcry.
The talks between top Senate Democrats and the Trump administration aimed at averting a government shutdown have moved closer to Democrats’ demands, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
“I think we’re getting close,” Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting Thursday morning. “We’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown.”
No agreement has yet been reached, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the emerging deal would put the Department of Homeland Security on temporary stopgap funding while other agencies would get funding through Sept. 30.
Without an agreement, government funding will lapse on Saturday for much of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has insisted that Republicans agree to remove long-term Homeland Security funding from a massive spending bill to keep the government open past Friday.
A Republican effort to advance spending legislation through the Senate on Thursday failed on a procedural vote. Senator Patty Murray, the top-ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the GOP needed to wait for a deal before moving ahead.
Some senators in both parties have said they could support a short-term stopgap measure for Homeland Security funding to give both sides more time to discuss potential restrictions on immigration enforcement operations, following the killing this month of two US citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents.
Schumer and other Democrats have proposed a range of revisions, including requiring officers to forgo masks, wear body cameras and obtain warrants before entering homes. They have also called for an end to immigration sweeps.
Any single senator could trigger a brief government shutdown through procedural action.
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Thune has told reporters that any breakthrough depended on negotiations between Democrats and the White House.
The House passed the massive spending bill last week and then left Washington, not planning to return until Monday. But any changes to the measure would require another vote there.
Thune said his hope and expectation is the House comes back early and does “what’s necessary” to avoid a shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson has not announced his plans.
Some conservative House Republicans have said they would make demands of their own if Democrats receive concessions intended to rein in aggressive tactics by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol in Minnesota and other states.
Trump has indicated in recent days that he would make changes to his administration’s deportation campaign. The crackdown, according to polls, has grown increasingly unpopular with voters, posing a risk to the Republican Party in the coming midterm elections.
