The administration is not planning to shut down the government as negotiations over funding President Trump’s border wall rush toward a Nov. 21 deadline, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“We have no intention of having a shutdown. I think everybody intends to keep the government open,” Mnuchin said following a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the top congressional appropriators from both chambers.
Wall funding has become the central obstacle for passing bills to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.
Last year, the same issue led to a 35-day shutdown, the longest in the nation’s history. Trump has been seen as the wild card in the negotiations, and Mnuchin’s participation in Thursday’s meeting and insistence that a shutdown is not in the books raises the chances of things going smoothly.
Negotiators in the meeting agreed to find a solution on how to allocate funds between the government’s agencies by Wednesday.
Democrats have objected to drawing funds from health-related bills to fund the wall in the Homeland Security bill.
But negotiators now seem intent to strike a deal on the allocations and work out details on the wall and other disagreements later.
Next week, the House is set to vote on a four-week stopgap measure to avert a shutdown and postpone the deadline for passing full funding measures until just before the Christmas holiday.
Jordain Carney contributed
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Regular the hill posts
The Hill Podcasts
