{"id":263972,"date":"2025-09-29T14:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263972\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:11:13","slug":"as-government-shutdown-draws-closer-congressional-leaders-will-meet-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263972\/","title":{"rendered":"As government shutdown draws closer, congressional leaders will meet Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are heading to the White House for a meeting<\/a> with President Donald Trump<\/a> on Monday in a late effort to avoid a government shutdown, but both sides have shown hardly any willingness to budge<\/a> from their entrenched positions. <\/p>\n

If government funding legislation isn\u2019t passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered<\/a> and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n

Republicans are daring Democrats to vote against legislation that would keep government funding mostly at current levels, but Democrats have held firm. They\u2019re using one of their few points of leverage to demand Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting is a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation,\u201d Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has shown little interest<\/a> in entertaining Democrats\u2019 demands on health care, even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. The Republican president has said repeatedly he fully expects the government to enter a shutdown this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it has to shut down, it\u2019ll have to shut down,\u201d Trump said Friday<\/a>. \u201cBut they\u2019re the ones that are shutting down government.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Capitol is seen during rainy weather just days before federal money runs out which could trigger a government shutdown, in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/p>\n

The Capitol is seen during rainy weather just days before federal money runs out which could trigger a government shutdown, in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has tried to pressure Democratic lawmakers<\/a> into backing away from their demands, warning that federal employees could be permanently laid off in a funding lapse. <\/p>\n

\u201cChuck Schumer said a few months ago that a government shutdown would be chaotic, harmful and painful. He\u2019s right, and that\u2019s why we shouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Sunday on \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Democrats argued Trump\u2019s agreement to hold a meeting shows he\u2019s feeling the pressure to negotiate. They say that because Republicans control the White House and Congress, Americans will mostly blame them for any government shutdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But to hold on to their negotiating leverage, Senate Democrats will likely have to vote against a bill to temporarily extend government funding on Tuesday, just hours before a shutdown \u2014 an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive. <\/p>\n

The bill has already passed the Republican-controlled House and would keep the government funded for seven more weeks while Congress works on annual spending legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Any legislation to fund the government will need support from at least 60 senators. That means that at least eight Democrats would have to vote for the short-term funding bill, because Republican Sen. Rand Paul<\/a> of Kentucky is expected to vote against it.<\/p>\n

During the last potential government shutdown in March, Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote. The New York Democrat faced fierce backlash<\/a> from many in his own party for that decision, with some even calling for him to step down as Democratic leader.<\/p>\n

This time, Schumer appears resolute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hearing from the American people that they need help on health care and as for these massive layoffs, guess what? Simple one-sentence answer: They\u2019re doing it anyway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits<\/a> that have subsidized health insurance for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits, which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people, are set to expire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits but want changes. Thune said Sunday that the program is \u201cdesperately in need of reform\u201d and Republicans want to address \u201cwaste, fraud and abuse.\u201d<\/a> He has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the White House meeting will help or hurt the chances for a resolution. Negotiations between Trump and Democratic congressional leaders have rarely gone well, and Trump has had little contact with the opposing party during his second term.<\/p>\n

The most recent negotiation in August between Schumer and the president to speed the pace of Senate confirmation votes for administration officials ended with Trump telling Schumer to \u201cgo to hell\u201d<\/a> in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Trump also abruptly canceled a meeting<\/a> that was planned with congressional leaders last week, calling Democrats\u2019 demands \u201cunserious and ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumer argued that the White House coming back to reschedule a meeting for Monday showed that \u201cthey felt the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are heading to the White House for a meeting with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":263973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,64,8120,327,84,69,57,8123,9166,8121,2934,8119,50,80,26390,89,121682,322,67,326,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-263972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-charles-schumer","12":"tag-congress","13":"tag-district-of-columbia","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","17":"tag-health-care-industry","18":"tag-john-thune","19":"tag-legislation","20":"tag-mike-johnson","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-rand-paul","24":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","25":"tag-u-s-government-shutdown","26":"tag-u-s-republican-party","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115287994174716475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}