About 10 bipartisan senators who have signed a letter urging President Donald Trump to reopen the government for three weeks and, in that time, come to an agreement on border security are not yielding results as Trump rejected a similar idea earlier this week, The Hill reports.
Sen. Joe Manchin, R-W.Va., said the goal was to have 20 lawmakers sign the letter, but a Republican aide told The Hill only 10 had done so by Wednesday afternoon.
The report comes hours after Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.Y., Thomas Suozzi, D-N.Y., Vincente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., Dean Phillips, D-Minn., Max Rose, D-N.Y., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., met with Trump to discuss an end to the shutdown that has lasted for more than three weeks.
The lawmakers are not part of Democratic leadership.
Trump has demanded $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but Democrats have not budged.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he would not sign the letter because he wanted to acknowledge the president's request and set parameters.
"Without some sort of agreement in principle on what would be on the table for negotiated settlement, I just don't see it producing a productive outcome," he said.
A draft of the letter asks the president to join lawmakers "in supporting a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) of three weeks to give Congress time to develop and vote on a broad bipartisan agreement that addresses your request."
In return, the letter promised, senators would "make our best efforts following regular order in the appropriate committees and mark up bipartisan legislation related to your request."
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