Republicans, Democrats struggle to find a deal to end the government shutdown

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Donald TrumpJoe Raedle/Getty Images

• The federal government entered the second day of a partial shutdown on Sunday.
• So far, leaders from both parties have been unable to get close to a deal to reopen the government.
• It looks like the shutdown could stretch well into the week.

As the federal government enters the second day of a partial government shutdown, there appears to be little progress toward a deal, but deadlines are looming on the horizon.

Leaders of the two parties spent most of Saturday pointing the finger at each other for the shutdown, which began at midnight as Friday turned to Saturday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer attacked President Donald Trump for backing out of a broad deal to address immigration, health care, and funding on Friday. Trump used the bully pulpit of Twitter to attack Schumer and Democrats for “taking the Military hostage” during the shutdown. And members of both parties lobbed insults during tense meetings in Congress.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators attempted to hash out a deal and get their respective parties’ leaders onboard, but progress appeared slow.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the main negotiators of the group, told reporters that the deal was shaping up and Democrats needed to jump on board.

“It’s up to Democrats to find a way to get to yes,” Graham said. “[Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell] has given me a way to yes. And I would argue I care as much about getting immigration resolved as anyone in the body.”

Sen. John Cornyn, the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, told reporters late Sunday afternoon that the government would likely remain shut down into Monday.

In terms of actual policy, Democrats are fighting to pass a short-term funding extension combined with assurances that legislation to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program will be considered soon.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Ohio Democrat, told Business Insider that he backs a funding bill that lasts a few days in order to work out a deal on legislative issues.

“If McConnell would open the government tonight and let us negotiate for two or three more days, we could come to a deal,” Brown said.

Republicans, particularly in the House, drew a hard line that there would be no DACA negotiations until the government is open and are pushing back for a longer short-term funding bill, called a continuing resolution (CR).

Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to be in session on Sunday.

An impasse

Donald Trump and Paul Ryan.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The negotiations on Saturday to try and resolve the shutdown were frigid.

According to reports, Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not speak during the day, instead relying on GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake — who both defied their party and voted against the funding bill on Friday — to broker a deal.

The main sticking point appears to be the length of a funding bill, which would allow the two sides to work out differences on a broader funding deal and possible DACA solution.

Republicans are pushing for a three week extension, to February 8, while Democrats are seeking something even shorter to try and add more pressure to negotiations. The original CR would have pushed the next shutdown deadline to February 16.

Democrats are also pushing for some sort of commitment on DACA, the Obama-era program that protects nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as minors from deportation. House Republicans have complicated any discussion of the issue, as any Senate bill could die in the lower chamber.

Senate Republicans have rejected the idea that there should be a commitment to vote or a vote on DACA before the government re-opens.

“Turning the agenda over to Democrats who just shut down the government makes no sense to me,” Cornyn said Sunday. “It just seems like it encourages bad behavior.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan and House GOP leaders refused to consider any DACA solution on Saturday, saying that the focus should be exclusively on funding the government.

“Open the government back up and then we’ll get back to negotiating,” Ryan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy expressed similar sentiments on Sunday.

“I think it’s more difficult to get any agreement on DACA in a shutdown,” McCarthy told reporters.

Based on comments Saturday, it appears that Senate Democrats are waiting for Senate Republicans to give them a commitment for a DACA vote from House Republicans before they agree to open the government.

Democrats said that a vote on a DACA solution, preferably attached as a part of another piece of must pass legislation, was needed to get their cooperation.

“It depends on whether it’s part of a must-pass bill. That is my strong preference. The goal is to have the DREAMer Act passed,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Politico on Sunday. “I have no confidence, zero, in Paul Ryan bringing that bill to the floor.”

Senate Republicans say they are unable to bind House Republicans to any deal. House Republicans refuse to consider any deal that may appease Senate Democrats and say they are not part of the Senate negotiations.

All the while, the White House and Trump are lobbing attacks at Democrats and do not appear to be actively involved in any negotiations.

If it’s any indication of how the negotiations are going, a large TV was rolled into McConnell’s office just as the NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles began.

As for the schedule, the biggest deadline appears to be a vote scheduled by McConnell for 1 a.m. ET on Monday, which would allow debate to go forward on the CR with a February 8 deadline. If no deal is reached before that time, the bill could be blocked again.

In that case, it would be almost inevitable that the shutdown would last well into the week. Roughly 800,000 federal employees could wake up on Monday locked out of their jobs and unsure of when their next paychecks will come.