President Trump said Friday that his meeting with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to try to head off a shutdown was “excellent,” but said he’s still pushing Congress to approve a four-week stopgap bill to give all sides space to work out a final deal.
Mr. Schumer called the meeting productive, but said they still had “a good number of disagreements” after meeting for more than an hour.
Mr. Trump sounded more upbeat — though he didn’t say any breakthroughs occurred.
“Excellent preliminary meeting in Oval with @SenSchumer - working on solutions for Security and our great Military together with @SenateMajLdr McConnell and @SpeakerRyan. Making progress - four week extension would be best!” the president said via Twitter.
And White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CNN shortly before 6 p.m., “I think there’s a deal in the next 24 hours.”
Mr. Trump canceled plans to travel to Florida to stay in town and oversee his administration’s negotiations over policy, and preparations for a shutdown should it come to that.
While the president stressed military spending in his comment, the main sticking point has been immigration, and Democrats’ self-imposed deadline demand that millions of illegal immigrant “Dreamers” be given full citizenship status in any spending deal.
Democrats had set a similar deadline in December but didn’t enforce it, sparking a major backlash from immigrant-rights advocates and liberal pressure groups who said they would rebel if Democrats didn’t stick by a January deadline.
The House has already passed a bill to keep the government open through Feb. 16, while also renewing funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years.
That bill is awaiting a showdown vote in the Senate, where Mr. Schumer has signaled he will lead a filibuster to defeat it, which would send the government careening toward a shutdown.
• Dave Boyer contributed to this article
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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