Two-week funding bill introduced

Congress looking to move deadline beyond Bush funeral

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders introduced a two-week funding bill Monday to avert a partial government shutdown, as business in the Capitol came to a standstill for ceremonies honoring former President George H.W. Bush.

The stopgap measure would keep the government funded through Dec. 21, two weeks after a Friday deadline when funding for parts of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, is set to expire.

House leaders canceled roll-call votes this week for ceremonies honoring Bush, who died Friday, meaning an extension will need to be approved to avert a funding lapse. That could be done in the House by unanimous consent, without lawmakers present to vote.

While Democrats prefer a one-week extension, they signaled they would not object to a two-week delay. President Donald Trump made clear over the weekend that he would agree to a shortterm extension that would avert a funding dispute amid the ceremonies honoring Bush.

But the agreement on a new shutdown deadline does not mean lawmakers and Trump are any closer to a solution on the major issue dividing them: funding for Trump’s border wall.

Trump on Monday kept up the pressure on congressional Democrats to fund the wall and threatened other actions to deter illegal immigration.

“We would save Billions of Dollars if the Democrats would give us the votes to build the Wall,” Trump tweeted Monday. “Either way, people will NOT be allowed into our Country illegally! We will close the entire Southern Border if necessary.”

Democrats have little interest in providing the $5 billion Trump wants for the southern border, and with the party set to take control of the House in the new year, opposition to the wall has hardened.

Democrats in the Senate have agreed to only $1.6 billion for border barriers and security, and they do not want to provide more. Even some Republicans have balked at Trump’s spending request.

The president invited the top Democratic leaders, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, to the White House for a meeting today, but Democrats asked to postpone it because of Bush’s funeral. The meeting has been tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 11, said a White House official, who was not authorized to talk publicly and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday that he would be willing to sign a two-week funding extension. “I would absolutely consider it and probably give it,” he told reporters.

Schumer has suggested one option would be for Trump to accept the Senate’s $1.6 billion bipartisan border-security package, along with the remaining $1.3 billion from the current fiscal year that has not yet been spent.

Trump long claimed Mexico would pay for the wall, but instead the bill would be paid by U.S. taxpayers as part of funding for the Homeland Security Department. Under the new budget deadline, funding for the department and a number of other federal agencies would expire Dec. 21.

Earlier this year, Congress passed spending bills funding about 75 percent of the government through next September, agreeing to big increases for the Pentagon, the Health and Human Services Department, and other agencies. That means any shutdown would be limited in scope, affecting only the agencies whose budgets have not yet been approved.

As the debate continued on whether to fund the border wall, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal that said Trump’s administration is improperly sidestepping environmental and animal-protection laws in its push to build it.

The justices without comment left intact a ruling that cleared the administration to construct two segments of replacement fence and build several border-wall prototypes.

The ruling was issued by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Trump criticized the judge in 2016, saying that because of Trump’s comments about Mexico during the presidential campaign, Curiel couldn’t be impartial in handling a lawsuit involving Trump University. Curiel, whose parents immigrated from Mexico, was born and raised in Indiana.

In the suit over the wall, groups led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund challenged a 1996 federal law that let the Homeland Security Department waive dozens of federal laws so border-wall work could begin more quickly. The groups said the grant of authority was so sweeping that it violated the constitutional separation of powers.

In rejecting those arguments, Curiel said the waiver authority was a legitimate way to “avoid delays caused by lawsuits challenging the construction of barriers.”

The waivers let work proceed on a new 14-mile fence that will stretch east from the Pacific Ocean and on a now-completed 2-mile fence in Calexico, Calif. The new fencing will be as high as 30 feet.