Trump, leaders plan White House budget meeting

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump and congressional leaders have scheduled a summit to begin sorting out their budget differences, top lawmakers and the White House said Monday, as a clash that could produce a partial government shutdown by the weekend hung in the balance.

The meeting, set for Thursday at the White House, comes just a day before federal spending expires that’s needed to keep agencies functioning beyond midnight Friday night. Complicating the search for a pact are disputes over immigration, health and other issues folded into the year-end mix.

Top Republicans have wanted to push a bill through Congress this week keeping government afloat through Dec. 22, giving bargainers more time to seek a longer-term budget pact. But underscoring the balancing act leaders face, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus flexed their muscle late Monday and demanded that the temporary spending bill run until Dec. 30.

The conservatives said they worry that a vote on the spending measure before Christmas – when lawmakers are desperate to get home – would give Democrats more leverage to boost the package’s price tag. In a brief drama, about two dozen of them withheld votes for a procedural measure advancing the GOP’s prized, separate tax bill until House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., agreed to talk to them further about their concerns, said Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C.

The GOP will need Democratic votes to push the spending bills through Congress, another reason the pathway is unclear for averting a closure just weeks before the start of the 2018 election year.

Even so, top Republicans expressed confidence that they’d approve the short-term measure this week, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying, “We will pass it before the end of the week.”

White House spokesman Raj Shah and a spokesman for McConnell confirmed Thursday’s meeting.

GOP leaders hope to send Trump a final tax package before Christmas, and there’s a growing consensus that they have a strong chance to succeed. Both chambers’ bills give the bulk of their tax breaks to businesses and wealthier people and are headlined with a cut of the 35 percent corporate tax to 20 percent.