No deal to end shutdown; Trump says it will last ‘as long as it takes’

WASHINGTON — Museums and the National Zoo closed their doors Wednesday due to the government shutdown as congressional leaders and President Donald Trump squabbled over his demand for border wall funds and failed to find a compromise that could end the impasse.

Trump summoned congressional leaders to the Situation Room in the White House, largely seen as an attempt by the administration to make the president’s request for a border wall one of national security.

But even before the meeting, Trump said he would not back down from his request for $5 billion for wall construction, which has been the sticking point in the negotiations.

Trump told reporters at the White House before the congressional meeting that he was prepared to continue the shutdown “for as long as it takes.”

“I think the people of this country think I’m right,” Trump said.

Congressional leaders left the White House with both sides dug in on their positions. Trump invited them back Friday for another briefing.

House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told colleagues to prepare for a vote on two bills Thursday when the new Congress begins. The bills would reopen the government and push back until Feb. 8 a deadline for negotiating border security funding and the president’s $5 billion request.

The bills were part of legislation previously passed by the Senate and include a bipartisan-negotiated $1.3 billion for border security, including money for fencing and drones.

“We are asking the president to open up government. Why wouldn’t he do that?” Pelosi said following the White House briefing.

Pressure on McConnell

With a new Democratic majority, the House is expected to pass the bills and send them back to the Senate, placing pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to pass the legislation and send it to Trump for signature or veto.

“Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the president’s third shutdown of his term,” Pelosi said.

But McConnell signaled that those bills will go nowhere in the Senate.

McConnell has said he will not bring legislation to the floor that is not accepted by the two chambers and supported by the White House, leaving many to worry that the shutdown will continue into the month.

The impact of the government shutdown came into sharper focus Wednesday — the 12th day since funds lapsed for eight departments.

The Smithsonian Institution announced it would close its museums, a large tourist attraction in Washington, and the National Zoo because of a lapse in funding.

“Due to the federal government shutdown, all Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are closed,” the institution said in statement. The museums and zoo were operating on unspent funds.

The statement said animals at the zoo would continue to receive full-time care and feeding.

The shutdown will be felt by roughly 800,000 federal workers, including several thousands in Nevada, who are working without pay or staying home as the White House and Congress fail to address the impasse.

The first missed paycheck by federal workers impacted by the shutdown will be Jan. 11.

National Parks and recreational areas are without visitor services, including restrooms, while federal courts and airports are open with federal employees working without pay.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said congressional leaders should act.

“America’s working families are looking to our congressional leaders to bring an end to this debacle,” Trumka said in a statement.

Support for Trump

But conservative commentators and members of the House Freedom Caucus support the president and his campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, citing an influx of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs and narcotics.

Democrats, and some Republicans, have called a concrete wall an inefficient use of taxpayer money.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats have chided Trump for promising the electorate in 2016 that Mexico would pay for the wall, and now trying to burden U.S. taxpayers with the financial responsibility to carry out his campaign pledge.

Schumer said following the White House meeting Wednesday that Trump was holding federal employees “hostage” over a temper tantrum about his campaign pledge.

The shutdown officially began Dec. 22 when Trump reversed course on a bipartisan agreement to keep the government open until Feb. 8. The Senate had passed a bipartisan stopgap bill to keep the government operating and the legislation was slated for a vote in the House when Trump reversed his position, sending GOP leaders scrambling to avoid a shutdown.

Trump pulled back from his support of the stopgap bill when conservative commentators accused him of caving to Democrats on the border security issue and punting a decision to the new Congress, where Democrats would control the House.

Republicans had controlled all three legislative branches in the last Congress, which ended Wednesday night.

In a December meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, Trump said he would be “proud” to shut down the government over his request for wall spending.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.