House Republican leaders emerged from a GOP conference meeting on Saturday morning to say that talks on a bipartisan immigration fix should halt until the federal government is open again.
“The whole point is, we are committed to solving this problem and [we’ll] go back to the table when the government’s back open,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry said it’s not the right approach to have other talks right now.
“We need to have talks about how we open the government, and we shouldn’t be held hostage on other policy matters in order to re-open the government,” said Mr. McHenry, North Carolina Republican.
The federal government entered a partial shutdown overnight after the Senate failed to come to an agreement on a four-week funding extension that would have kept it open.
The Republican-controlled House passed a plan on Thursday that would fund the government for a month, extend a children’s health insurance program for six years and delay some Obamacare-related taxes.
But Senate Democrats blocked action on Friday, saying they want a firm commitment on a solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields many young illegal immigrants from deportation.
The program is scheduled to phase out in March, and Republicans said it’s wrong for Democrats to hold things up without an imminent deadline.
“Schumer shut it down for the idea to hold the government hostage, and that is just wrong,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican.
But Democrats effectively halted immigration negotiations by blocking the House measure, said Rep. Mark Meadows, North Carolina Republican.
“Negotiations will not go on until we open the government up and start being serious about the fundamental issue before us all, and that is to make sure that we do our job [in] Congress,” said Mr. Meadows, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said he and President Trump were close to a deal, but ultimately couldn’t come to an agreement.
“This will be called the Trump shutdown,” Mr. Schumer said.
Mr. McCarthy did say Republicans would be open to a three-week extension, which people like Sen. Lindsey Graham are now floating.
“I believe we would accept if they went to February 8th,” he said.
Rep. Greg Walden, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, also said a shorter-term extension could be acceptable at this point, but that such a move could also simply push things down the road.
“If the issue is about immigration reform, I highly doubt that it’ll be ready in four or five days, so what do we do, create the next crisis?” said Mr. Walden, Oregon Republican. “This is really up to Chuck Schumer — how long he wants to keep the government shut down.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.