Trump retreats on wall funding

The threat of a US government shutdown this weekend has appeared to recede after President Trump backed away from a demand Congress include funding for his planned border wall with Mexico in a spending bill.

Even if the fight over wall funding is over, Republicans and Democrats still have difficult issues to resolve as they face a Friday night deadline when existing money expires for many federal agencies.

There was growing sentiment among lawmakers they would need to pass a short-term extension of current spending, possibly of one week’s duration, in order to finish negotiating longer-term legislation for funding the government through to end of September.

But some leading Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have expressed optimism that Congress could pass the longer-term bill and avoid having to rely on another temporary extension of last year’s funding levels.

President Trump removed a crucial sticking point when he said on Monday he may wait until Republicans begin drafting the budget blueprint for the fiscal year that starts in October to seek wall funding.

The current spending bill will need 60 votes to clear the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold only 52 seats. Democrats had said they would not support a bill that included funds for the wall.

If no spending measure up to the end of September is in place before Saturday morning, government funds will halt and hundreds of thousands of the country’s several million federal employees will be temporarily laid off.

Reuters