Republican leaders in Congress hope to pass a stop-gap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, Politico reports.
Congress has until Dec. 8 to pass a spending bill, but at least three problems have emerged: military hawks want more money for the armed forces, the GOP can't pass a funding bill without support from Senate Democrats, and moderate Republicans are anxious about making a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
However, congressional Republican leaders are looking to address those issues in January, hoping that the additional time will be enough to work out a deal.
The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday that "there's too much at stake" for Dreamers, as those enrolled in the DACA program are known, for further delay.
"We can't let this to slip into January, February with a March 5 deadline. It should be done, it can be done, easily, simply and quickly," Durbin told The Washington Post.
"I don't want a shutdown. I didn't come here to shut down anything," he continued. "What I want to do is get this done and I think people in good faith can get it done."
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio also voiced support for Dreamers, telling Politico on Wednesday that "I hope we will want to get something done because these are real people who are now working, some have started businesses, many are in school or about to enter school and this sort of uncertainty isn't good for them, their families, their employer, or quite frankly, their country.
"A significant percentage of those young people that we would categorize as Dreamers actually fit the profile of the kind of person we want to attract under a merit-based immigration system: Highly educated, employable, ready to go to work."
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