President Donald Trump continues to whine that Democrats supposedly aren’t showing up for work as the partial government shutdown drags on, but House Democrats have now again presented legislation to reopen the government and thereby provide for the hundreds of thousands of workers left out in the cold and the untold numbers of Americans who rely on services those workers provide.
New House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has introduced two continuing resolutions that provide funding through February for the roughly one-fourth of the government that’s currently closed, giving legislators more time to work on Trump and Republicans’ demands for border wall funding while ending the hostage holding that’s defined the negotiations so far.
Lowey insisted:
‘It is critical that we reopen the federal government, and these two new Continuing Resolutions offer President Trump and Senate Republicans additional options to end the shutdown while allowing time for negotiation on border security and immigration policy. We should pass them into law without delay.’
One of Lowey’s measures funds the government through February 1, while the other goes through February 28, giving Trump and Republicans two more options for a time frame in which to work on their demands for wall funding. The full House will be voting on both of her measures this week — the shorter term one should be up Tuesday, while the lengthier one is set for Thursday.
Lowey noted that the House has already passed a number of other funding proposals, including four separate bills that were essentially copies of previously Senate-approved legislation, but Trump says he won’t accept anything without billions of dollars for a wall and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) won’t even have the Senate vote on a measure unless Trump will definitely sign it.
Besides the previously Senate approved legislation, the Democrat-led House has already passed two other funding provisions, including covering for most currently shuttered government agencies through the end of the fiscal year and the Department of Homeland Security through just February 1. Although it’s not as though the Departments of Housing and Urban Development or the Interior operate under DHS, Democrats have now capitulated in part to Republicans’ demands to bundle them together — yet, it still likely won’t be enough. Neither one of Lowey’s new funding bills includes any money for a wall.
In the middle of the longest government shutdown in American history, Trump has not proven keen on compromise, all while lambasting Democrats for supposedly not coming to the table. He literally stormed out of a recent meeting with Democratic leaders after they said they wouldn’t support the wall.
He has attempted all sorts of justifications for his push for a wall, but few if any have stuck. The State Department says that there’s no evidence that terrorists have used the southern border for access to the United States, and native born Americans commit crimes just like immigrants do. Overall, undocumented border crossings are at a low that hasn’t been seen in some forty years and counting.
Trump still insists there’s a crisis anyway.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
