Senior GOP senator warns Trump against partial shutdown

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) says he warned President Trump in a White House meeting Thursday afternoon that Republicans should avoid a partial government shutdown over the president’s desire for a border wall. 

Shelby and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) returned to Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon after meeting with Trump. 

Newly-elected Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) also attended the meeting. 

{mosads}“I said we shouldn’t ever want to shut down the government,” Shelby told reporters when asked about discussion about a possible shutdown.

“I think maybe he agreed, I don’t know,” he said of Trump’s response. 

“We had a nice discussion,” he added, describing Trump as being “in a good mood.” 

Shelby noted that government funding is going to expire on Dec. 7. 

McConnell told reporters that he thinks a partial government shutdown will be avoided. 

“We had a good discussion about funding the government and the other sort of year-end items and we’re optimistic we’ll be able to get that done, get the Farm bill done,” he said. 

“We talked about border security and how to resolve this. We’re optimistic we have a way forward,” he added. 

Asked what the year-end government funding deal would look like, McConnell replied, “I’ll tell you when we get it.”

Trump has asked Congress for $5 billion to fund construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border but the president and GOP leaders did not talk about a specific funding amount, according to Shelby. 

“I feel pretty good we’ll be able to work this out,” he said, adding “We did not get any of the figures or anything today.”