Federal Government Policy and Business

Senate Democrat: Shutdown 'More Likely Than Not'

Government Executive: With just four days left to approve a spending measure, Congress appears to be on the precipice of a government shutdown.

Just last Thursday, developments on multiple issues seemed to be moving toward a bipartisan solution to the spending impasse, as a House committee chairman announced he would bring forward a long-term extension to the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a bipartisan group of senators said they had reached a deal to protect participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program. Democrats have said these two issues must be resolved for them to support any spending package.

But shortly thereafter, The Washington Post reported that President Trump had panned the immigration accord in a meeting with Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in which the president reportedly asked why the United States must take in immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti, El Salvador and nations in Africa, instead of countries like Norway.

Read article