Sept. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will meet Monday with the top four congressional leaders in a bid to avert a potential government shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced in a news release late Saturday that Trump had agreed to meet with them in the Oval Office of the White House ahead of an Oct. 1 deadline to pass a spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown.
“As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” the top Democratic lawmakers said in the joint statement.
“We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, both Republicans, will join them at the White House, NBC News and CBS News reported.
The announcement of the meeting came after Trump cancelled a planned meeting last week with the Democratic lawmakers at the request of Johnson and Thune.
Congress has been deadlocked for weeks. Republicans are pushing to keep the government open with a short-term spending bill that would extend funding into November. Their bill would not restore recent Medicaid cuts, and it omits an extension of the currently enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits scheduled to expire.
Democrats, led by Schumer and Jeffries, have said they won’t support any stopgap bill unless it protects healthcare programs. They argue that those healthcare protections must be included in any emergency funding deal, not delayed for later talks.
“They want all this stuff. They don’t change. They haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken,” Trump previously said about meeting with Schumer and Jeffries. “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have an impact.”
So far, both sides have tested their positions with failed votes. On Sept. 19, the House passed the Republican plan to fund the government through Nov. 21, but the Senate rejected it. Republicans hold a slim majority of 53 seats and need Democratic support to get the 60 votes required to pass a funding bill.
Democrats have tried to advance their own version that included the healthcare protections, but that measure also failed to clear the Senate.
The standoff has raised fears of a repeat of past shutdowns, which disrupted federal services and cost the government billions of dollars.