Trump signs spending bill to avert government shutdown — for one week

Liz Goodwin
·Senior National Affairs Reporter
The House of Representatives. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The House of Representatives. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a one-week stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a government shutdown for one more week.

The majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress passed the spending bill earlier in the day, giving lawmakers until next Friday at midnight to hammer out a spending deal for the rest of the fiscal year.

The Senate quickly approved the House’s continuing resolution — or “CR” in Washington-speak. The CR passed the House 373 to 30. Trump signed the bill in private.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said “progress” had been made between the parties on the deal as lawmakers stayed up past midnight negotiating.

“Not all the poison pill riders have been eliminated,” Schumer said. “We’re willing to extend things for a little time in hopes that the same kind of progress will be made.”

“The legislation…will carry us through next week, so that a bipartisan final agreement can be reached and so that members will have time to review that legislation before we take it up,” Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

Democrats have objected to riders to the spending bill cutting funding for health care, environmental programs and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Republicans already backed down from the president’s demand that the spending bill include money for a border wall, and the White House assured Democrats it would continue to fund a key part of Obamacare. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., also said the final spending bill will include a “permanent fix” for a government program funding healthcare for retired miners.

In the House, Democrats also objected to Republicans passing a repeal of Obamacare using the same rule, or procedure, that they used for the spending bill. But Republicans backed off that too, with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announcing Thursday night that there would be no vote on health care this week.

Democrats entered negotiations with significant leverage, since Republicans need their votes for a spending bill to advance in the Senate and they believed the GOP would take the blame for a shutdown.

Democratic leadership seemed to celebrate Republicans’ failure to advance bills on healthcare and tax reform, as well as Trump’s failure to fund a border wall, which they said Trump was trying to rush through in order to point to concrete accomplishments before he reached 100 days in office on Saturday.

“I simply say, how many more times do they have to fail before they realize our path is the best path?” Schumer told reporters Friday morning.

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