White House warns against including wall restrictions in stopgap bill

The White House is open to another stopgap spending bill, according to a top aide, but the Trump administration is also warning Democrats against including any border wall restrictions in the short-term bill needed to avoid a government shutdown.

Office of Legislative Affairs Director Eric Ueland said Tuesday that the White House is open to another continuing resolution to fund the government beyond Nov. 21 “as long as it does not restrict [President Trump’s] authorities or abilities to pursue his policy priorities, including wall construction.”

{mosads}“We’re heartened to have continuing conversations with appropriate parties in Congress on the regular order spending bills, as well as a continuing resolution,” Ueland said ahead of a closed-door Senate GOP lunch on Capitol Hill.

To avoid a shutdown on Nov. 22, lawmakers will need to pass either the 12 appropriations bills or another continuing resolution to avoid a second shutdown this year.

The White House had previously asked for the current continuing resolution, signed in late September, to lift a restriction included in the fiscal 2019 funding bills that requires any border barrier money to be limited to the Rio Grande Valley sector.

Congress rejected the White House request to lift those restrictions in the funding measure, which extends fiscal 2019 spending levels through Nov. 21. Ueland sidestepped a question about whether the White House would need the Rio Grande Valley restriction lifted as part of the next short-term bill.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), a member of GOP leadership whose Appropriations subcommittee oversees funding for the Homeland Security Department, warned that there wasn’t “any kind of appetite” for another shutdown.

“I think [Trump] knows the feeling up here on the Hill and I don’t think it was a particularly enjoyable thing for him either,” she told The Hill.

Earlier this year, a record 35-day partial shutdown ended with Trump declaring a national emergency to leapfrog Congress and get more wall funding.

Although the Senate passed a package of four spending bills last week — its first for the 2020 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1 — Democrats say they cannot reconcile the legislation with the House versions until they agree on spending allocations for each of the 12 funding measures.

Negotiations on the top-line spending figures have been complicated largely by questions about potential wall funding. Trump has requested $8.6 billion for the wall in fiscal 2020 — an amount that is unlikely to pass both chambers of Congress.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) have said another continuing resolution will be needed this month, though the length of the prospective stopgap is uncertain.

Ueland declined to weigh in on a time frame, saying it was up to congressional leadership to pitch the White House on a potential end date.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she has been in talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to find a way forward on spending legislation. McConnell, Senate GOP leadership and members of Democratic House leadership, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.), are all said to favor an earlier, December deadline.

Both Shelby and Lowey have floated a February or March time frame, though Shelby and Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, have indicated they would prefer a continuing resolution that doesn’t go beyond the end of the year.