The US Senate will vote on two proposals on Thursday to end the longest US government shutdown, but hopes for a long-term solution to the impasse remained dim, with both sides refusing to budge on their core demands.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, reversed his previous position on Tuesday to allow the votes. He had said earlier that he would only let the chamber consider shutdown-related legislation that was backed by President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats.
Mr McConnell called on senators to support a proposal put forward on Saturday by Mr Trump, which would allocate $5.7bn for border wall spending, and make a series of changes to the existing immigration system.
However, Mr McConnell also agreed to allow a short-term spending bill, backed by Democrats, to go up for a vote. That legislation would reopen the government until February 8 — giving Congress and the White House a two-week breather to find a solution to the crisis.
The short-term spending bill would keep funding at current levels and offer temporary relief to the roughly 800,000 federal workers whose agencies are affected by the shutdown and who have spent the past month either furloughed or working without pay. The same bill passed in the US House of Representatives this month.
To pass the Senate, either bill would require 60 votes, a tall order in a chamber where Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority, and few senators have shown signs of breaking rank.
On Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers sharply criticised Mr Trump’s latest proposal. The president’s plan offers temporary relief to people covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — an Obama-era programme that offered a path to citizenship for some 700,000 young undocumented immigrants. But Democrats noted that the relief would only last for three years.
Furthermore, Mr Trump’s proposal would create stricter rules for young asylum seekers. Children under the age of 18 would need to apply for asylum in their home countries, instead of at the US border. The president’s proposal would also put a cap on the number of children eligible for asylum in the US each year.
“The president said his proposal was a reasonable compromise. In fact, it is neither reasonable nor a compromise,” Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, said on Tuesday.
Mr McConnell praised Mr Trump for trying to find a solution to the impasse.
“To reject this proposal, Democrats would have to prioritise political combat with the president ahead of federal workers, ahead of Daca recipients, ahead of border security, and ahead of stable and predictable government funding,” Mr McConnell said.
“Is that really a price that Democrats want to pay to prolong this episode, which they say they want to be over and done with?” he asked.
