By Keerthi Vedantam and Luv Junious
WASHINGTON – White House and congressional officials announced a plan to temporarily reopen the federal government Friday, as the partial government shutdown was about to begin its sixth week and furloughed workers were set to skip a second paycheck.
But the deal announced by President Donald Trump would only fund government operations for another three weeks, during which time lawmakers and the White House could negotiate on border security.
After thanking the roughly 800,000 federal workers who have been unpaid since the shutdown began Dec. 22, Trump said he would shut the government down again in mid-February if he does not get the border deal he wants.
The announcement that the government might reopen was welcomed by Arizona lawmakers, but they also pointed out the difficulties going forward as Washington tries to head off another shutdown.
“As I have said before, we need to put our political differences aside and open the government before we start to negotiate funding for border security,” said a statement from U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Sedona.
O’Halleran said he was concerned by the short-term nature of the latest deal and the reckless shutdown should have never happened in the first place.
“While I oppose the practice of funding our government with short-term spending bills, we need to get something done now,” O’Halleran’s statement said. “Once this shutdown ends, we need to work on a bipartisan plan to fully fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.”
The president’s insistence on more than $5 billion for a border wall, and congressional Democrats’ refusal to allocate more than $1.6 billion for border security, led to the budget stalemate that shuttered about a quarter of the government in December.
More than half of those workers who were deemed essential employees – Border Patrol agents, Transportation Security Administration workers, Coast Guard members – have continued to work without pay.
Trump backed away from his “big, beautiful wall” demands during his Rose Garden statement Friday on the proposed deal to reopen government. He conceded for the first time that the wall would not be a continuous barrier, but that natural barriers in some areas that have been there “for millions of years” could serve the same purpose as a manmade structure.
He also repeated his recent assertions that a wall does not need to be a concrete barrier but can include areas with steel slats or other barriers.
The president spent much of his speech speaking about the criminal activity that occurs at the border, including drug smuggling and human trafficking. He insisted that a wall is needed to prevent the illegal incursions into America.
Trump said that any border deal should include funding for humanitarian assistance for migrants who show up at the border seeking asylum in the United States. That came the same day that news reports indicated that border officials had started a new policy of accepting asylum requests from migrants in Tijuana, but then turning them back to Mexico to wait for a decision on their requests.
At an event later in the day, Trump said he was hopeful a deal could be reached. He held out the option that he could declare a national emergency and divert defense funds to wall construction, an option critics say he does not have the legal authority to exercise.
“I think we have a good chance,” Trump said, adding that he would successfully negotiate with the Democrats or declare an emergency. “It’s a national emergency.”