With about 25 percent of government funding still on the negotiation table, a partial shutdown in two weeks remains a real possibility in this lame-duck Congress.
The government is 75 percent funded through appropriations bills passed before the midterms, but President Donald Trump's $5 billion ask for border wall funding is a sticking point with Democrats bent on getting something in return, Politico reported.
"I don't want to screw with those deadlines; I don't want to engage in shutdown politics," Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Politico on Tuesday. "Let's fund the federal government and move on.
"I wish Democrats would cooperate. They all said they want to secure the border, so OK: It's going to require better barriers."
Democrats might leverage their call for special counsel protection and striking the citizenship question from the next census, sources told Politico. Trump's $5 billion minimum requested for border wall funding might be the last until after 2020 with Democrats now taking over the House majority. Trump had originally sought $25 billion to build the wall.
"If that gets in the mix, there has to be something in return for that," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told Politico. "I myself have a pretty hard position that Democrats should not even be engaged in discussions about that because [Trump] made it very clear that Mexico was going to pay for that wall."
The GOP-held Congress has already signed off on $1.6 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, which is "more than adequate," according to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
"They are still sitting on money from a year or two ago that they can't spend," Rep. Durbin added to Politico.
Government funding expires Dec. 7.
"How much would actually shut down? Particularly [the Department of Homeland Security] — most of DHS is deemed necessary for national security; it doesn't shut down,' Sen. Johnson told Politico. "It's very difficult to shut down the vast majority of the federal government. The federal government is going to keep going along no matter what happens."
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