Congress Focuses On Averting Shutdown, But Trump Wants More In Budget Deal

Adjust Comment Print

"Wherever we land will be a product the president can and will support", said Ryan of the spending bill during a Saturday afternoon conference call with Republican lawmakers, according to a GOP aide.

Yet Republican lawmakers and aides to party leaders, conservatives and moderates alike were skeptical the House would vote this week on the health legislation.

Trump's GOP allies control Congress, but they've been unable to send him a single major bill as his presidency faces the symbolic 100-day mark on Saturday - the very day when the government, in a worst-case scenario, could shut down.

The White House has been applying pressure to the House to vote on a bill sooner rather than later, but members said the call gave no indication that the votes are there. "Next week doesn't matter", Trump said.

He said, for instance, that the House will vote on a health care bill when Republicans are sure they have the support to pass it, according to several GOP aides on the call - suggesting that he does not believe that to be the case now, despite renewed negotiations between House conservatives, moderates and the White House. Insurers and other healthcare industry groups have pleaded with Congress and the Trump administration to commit to funding those subsidies, saying without more clarity they are unable to make key decisions about what plans they will offer next year and how to price them.

"We have the leverage and they have the exposure", House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California told fellow Democrats on a conference call Thursday, according to a senior Democratic aide.

Preibus said he believes the spending bill will include "something satisfactory" regarding the funding for the border wall. But in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Trump stopped short of demanding that money for the project be included in the must-pass spending bill. Ryan said that the House will vote on a health care bill when there are enough votes to pass it. Ryan and fellow Republicans suggested that it is more important to work with the Democrats on a spending bill than to push the border wall funding, which goes against what the Trump administration wants.

Bill O'Reilly breaks silence on podcast
O'Reilly admitted he was "surprised" how the situation transpired while he was on vacation in Italy last week, but did not delve into many details.

It's unclear if it has the needed support.

Reigniting talk that a vote is imminent risks another political embarrassment like the one in March, when Trump and Ryan abruptly scrapped a vote on an earlier version of a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare because a number of Republicans didn't support the measure.

"Well, we're going to get paid for it one way or the other", Sessions said of Trump's campaign pledge to get Mexico to foot the bill for construction. Trump has threatened to withhold the money to force Democrats to negotiate on health legislation.

With the House Budget Committee expected to unveil its 2018 budget, which is slated to include reconciliation instructions for tax reform, sometime in May, members are feeling the pressure to move on the 2017 budget being used to repeal the Affordable Care Act. GOP conservatives and moderates don't agree on the specifics of what a health care overhaul should look like, and Democrats are unified in opposing any of their efforts. "No particular rush. But we'll see what happens", Trump told reporters last week.

"Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday", he tweeted.

The most pressing issue is keeping the government open.

Two lawmakers who were on the call said that the leadership's goal was to vote on the spending bill by Friday, which leaves little room for error.

Comments