WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump moved quickly this week to negotiate with Democrats to try and avert a lengthy government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding, a sharp departure from last year's record standoff, when he refused to budge for weeks.
Some Republicans are frustrated with the deal, raising the possible of a prolonged shutdown fight when the House returns Monday to vote on the funding package. But Trump's sway over the GOP remains considerable, and he has made his position clear at a moment of mounting political strain.
“The only thing that can slow our country down is another long and damaging government shutdown,” Trump wrote on social media late Thursday.
The urgency marked a clear shift from Trump's posture during the 43-day shutdown late last year, when he publicly antagonized Democratic leaders and his team mocked them on social media. This time, with anger rising over shootings in Minneapolis and the GOP's midterm messaging on tax cuts drowned out by controversy, Trump acted quickly to make a deal with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Trump and the Republicans know that this is an issue where they’re on the wrong side of the American people and it really matters,” Schumer told reporters Friday after Senate passage of the government funding deal.
The crisis caused by Minneapolis killings
Senators returned to work this week dealing with the fallout from the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers, as well as the killing of Renee Good in the city weeks earlier.
Republicans were far from unified in their response. A few called for the firing of top administration officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy. Most GOP senators tried to strike a balance, calling for a thorough investigation into Pretti's killing while backing the hard-line immigration approach that is central to Trump's presidency.
But many agreed that the shootings threatened public support for Trump's immigration agenda.
“I’ve never seen a political party take its best issue and turn it into its worst issue in the period of time that it has happened in the last few weeks,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “Some things have to change.”
Democrats quickly coalesced around their key demands.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said there “was unanimity” around core principles of enforcing a code of conduct for immigration officers and agents, ending “roving patrols” for immigration enforcement actions and coordinating with local law enforcement on immigration arrests.
It helped that Trump himself was looking for ways to de-escalate in Minneapolis.
“The world has seen the videos of those horrible abuses by DHS and rogue operations catching up innocent people, and there’s a revulsion about it,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
“The White House is asking for a ladder off the ledge,” he added.
Avoiding the painful politics of a shutdown
Republicans are also trying to promote their accomplishments in office as they ready for the November elections and the difficult task of retaining control of both chambers of Congress.
But the prospect of a prolonged shutdown shifted attention away from their $4.5 trillion tax and spending cuts law, the centerpiece of their agenda. Republicans had hoped the beginning of this year's tax season on Monday would provide a political boost as voters begin to see larger tax refunds.
Republicans are also mindful of the political damage from last year's shutdown, when they took a slightly larger portion of the blame from Americans than Democrats, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
“The shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans,” Trump told Republican senators at the White House in November.
On a practical level, this funding standoff threatened to destroy months of bipartisan work, including long hours over the holiday break, to craft the 12 spending bills that fund the government and many priorities back home.
“We saw what happened in the last government shutdown in regards to how it hurt real, hardworking Americans,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I don’t want that to happen again.”
A two-week funding battle begins
The agreement reached this week, if passed by the House, would avoid a prolonged shutdown and fund nearly every federal department through the end of the budget year in September. But it would not resolve one of the most difficult issues for Congress and the White House: DHS funding.
Instead of a full-year deal, funding for the department was extended for just two weeks, giving lawmakers little time to bridge the deep divides over immigration enforcement.
Democrats are pressing for changes they say are necessary to prevent future abuses, including requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras, carry clear identification, end roving patrols in cities and coordinate more closely with local law enforcement when making arrests. Many Democrats also want tighter rules around warrants and accountability mechanisms for officers in the field.
Those demands have met stiff resistance from Republicans. Some are opposed to negotiating with Democrats at all.
“Republicans control the White House, Senate and House. Why are we giving an inch to Democrats?” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote on social media.
Republican senators said they would take the fight to Democrats by introducing their own bills, including restrictions on “sanctuary cities,” to show their support for Trump's policies. That term is generally applied to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“We’ve let the issue get away. We’re not leading. We’re trying to avoid losing rather than winning,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who held up the spending bills until Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to give him a vote on his sanctuary cities bill at a later date.
Thune acknowledged the difficulty of the next two weeks, saying there are “some pretty significant views and feelings.”
“We’ll stay hopeful,” Thune told reporters about the upcoming DHS fight. “But there are some pretty significant differences of opinion.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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