As the partial government shutdown hits a record 32nd day, the Senate is set to consider two competing proposals this week that could re-open the government — but probably won't.
Republicans are planning a vote Thursday on President Trump's proposal to end the stalemate. But Democrats are reiterating that his offer — with $5.7 billion for a border wall in exchange for temporary protections for those under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs — is a non-starter, meaning there's no realistic end yet in sight for the shutdown.
It's doubtful Trump's plan could reach the 60 votes it needs in the Senate, and if it did, the bill would likely be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled House. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also agreed to vote Thursday on a spending package that reopens the government through Feb. 8 without additional money the administration wants for Trump's wall, but with some added disaster relief money. That measure is all but certain to fail in the GOP-controlled Senate.
McConnell hailed Trump's plan on Tuesday as a bipartisan deal that Democrats should accept, saying "the opportunity to end all of this is staring us right in the face."
"This is the only proposal that can be signed by the president and immediately reopen the government," the McConnell said.
Trump unveiled his offer on Saturday — $5.7 billion for the wall along the Mexican border he has demanded, in return for three-year protections for some 700,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children and roughly 300,000 immigrants fleeing political unrest. It also includes disaster funding, and would fully fund the shuttered government agencies through this fiscal year.
Schumer made clear Trump's offer wasn't palatable, saying on the Senate floor Tuesday that it was "one-sided, harshly partisan and was made in bad faith."
The top Senate Democrat also compared Trump's offer to "hostage taking" instead of a compromise, given that it was the president who rolled back protections for both DACA and TPS. He also pointed out that the provisions Trump outlined for the DACA program are narrower than the bipartisan Senate proposal the White House said was the basis for that part of the bill, and called new provisions regarding rules governing the process to apply for asylum "a poison pill."
"Now offering some temporary protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise — it's a hostage situation," the top Democrat said on the Senate floor.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NPR's Morning Edition Democrats are largely united behind reopening the government and then proceeding with negotiations on border security.
"We want to discredit the use of government shutdown as a negotiating tactic," Kaine said. "If we give in to that kind of a tactic, using massive swaths of the American government, federal workers and American citizens as leverage, you can be sure this president will turn to that again and again and again every time he doesn't get his way."
About 800,000 government workers employed by the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Justice and Transportation are affected by the partial government shutdown, either being furloughed completely or working without pay.
Those workers have already missed one paycheck and are slated to miss another this week. Many employees live paycheck to paycheck, and the financial strain is great — and is also starting to have growing real-world implications for non-government workers. For example, 10 percent of Transportation Security Administration workers called in sick over the weekend, saying they couldn't report to work because of financial limitations.
NPR congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell contributed.
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