WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump moved quickly this week to negotiate with Democrats to try to avoid a lengthy government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, a sharp departure from last year’s record impasse when he refused to budge for weeks.
Some Republicans are frustrated by the deal, raising the possibility of a protracted shutdown fight when the House returns Monday to vote on the funding package. But Trump’s influence on the GOP remains considerable, and he made his position clear at a time of heightened political tension.
“The only thing that can slow our country down is another long and damaging government shutdown,” Trump wrote on social media late Thursday.
The emergency marked a sharp shift from Trump’s stance during the 43-day shutdown late last year, when he publicly antagonized Democratic leaders and his team mocked them on social media. This time, with anger rising over the Minneapolis shooting and the GOP’s midterm tax cut messaging mired in controversy, Trump moved quickly to strike a deal with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Trump and the Republicans know this is an issue where they’re on the wrong side of the American people, and it really matters,” Schumer told reporters Friday after the Senate approved the government funding deal.
Crisis caused by the Minneapolis murders
Senators returned to work this week, dealing with the fallout from the fatal shooting of Minneapolis intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers, as well as the slaying of Renee Good in the city a few weeks earlier.
Republicans were far from united in their response. Several called for the firing of top administration officials, such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy. Most GOP senators have tried to strike a balance, calling for a thorough investigation into Pretti’s killing while supporting the long-term approach to immigration that is central to Trump’s presidency.
But many agreed that the shootings threatened public support for Trump’s immigration agenda.
“I’ve never seen a political party take its best problem and turn it into its worst problem in the amount of time that has happened in the last few weeks,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “Some things have to change.”
Democrats quickly coalesced around their key demands.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said “there was unanimity” around the basic principles of enforcing a code of conduct for immigration officers and agents, ending “roving patrols” for immigration enforcement and coordinating with local law enforcement on immigration arrests.
It helped that Trump himself was looking for ways to defuse tensions in Minneapolis.
“The world has seen videos of those horrible DHS abuses and rogue operations catching innocent people, and there’s a revulsion about that,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.
“The White House is asking for a ladder off the edge,” he added.
Avoiding the painful politics of a shutdown
Republicans are also trying to tout their accomplishments in office as they prepare for the November elections and the difficult task of retaining control of both houses of Congress.
But the prospect of a prolonged shutdown has shifted attention away from their $4.5 trillion tax and spending cut bill, the centerpiece of their agenda. Republicans had hoped that the start of this year’s tax season on Monday would provide a political boost as voters begin to see bigger tax refunds.
Republicans are also wary of the political damage from last year’s shutdown, when they took a slightly larger share of the blame from Americans than from Democrats, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
“The shutdown was a big, negative factor for Republicans,” Trump told Republican senators at the White House in November.
On a practical level, this funding impasse threatened to destroy months of bipartisan work, including long hours over the holiday break, to craft the 12 spending bills that fund the government and many priorities at home.
“We saw what happened in the last government shutdown in terms of how it hurt real, hard-working Americans,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I don’t want this to happen again.”
A two-week funding battle begins
The deal he reached this week, if passed by the House, would avoid a prolonged shutdown and fund almost every federal department through the end of the budget year in September. But it wouldn’t solve one of the toughest issues for Congress and the White House: DHS funding.
Instead of a full-year deal, funding for the department was extended for just two weeks, giving lawmakers little time to overcome deep divisions over immigration enforcement.
Democrats are pushing for changes they say are needed to prevent future abuses, including requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras, carry clear identification, end roving patrols in cities and coordinate more closely with local law enforcement when making arrests. Many Democrats also want stricter rules on tenure and accountability mechanisms for field officers.
These demands met strong resistance from Republicans. Some oppose negotiations with the democrats.
“Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House. Why are we giving the Democrats an inch?” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote on social media.
Republican senators have said they will take the fight to Democrats by introducing their own bills, including restrictions on “sanctuary cities,” to show their support for Trump’s policies. This term generally applies to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“We let the issue slip. We’re not leading. We’re trying to avoid losing rather than winning,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-C., who supported the spending bills until Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.D., agreed to give him a vote on the sanctuary cities bill at a later date.
Thune acknowledged the difficulty of the next two weeks, saying there were “some pretty significant opinions and feelings.”
“We’re going to remain hopeful,” Thune told reporters of the upcoming DHS fight. “But there are some pretty significant differences of opinion.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.