Democratic and Republican congressional leaders will gather at the White House Wednesday afternoon for a briefing on border security as a partial government shutdown continues, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said late Tuesday night.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) listens to House Speaker designate Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speak to reporters after their meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque.
“The President has invited Republican and Democrat leaders in Congress to the White House for a border security briefing from senior Department of Homeland Security officials on Wednesday, and he remains committed to reaching an agreement that both reopens the government and keeps Americans safe,” Sanders said.
Attendees will include President Donald Trump, House-speaker designate Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader-to-be Kevin McCarthy, a source familiar with the meeting told The Daily Caller.
The meeting is ostensibly a briefing convened by the White House but is certain to entail negotiations over how to end a partial government shutdown.
President Donald Trump speaks next to Vice President Mike Pence while meeting with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the White House in December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The partial government shutdown centers on Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his proposed border wall and Democratic resistance to it. Democrats instead say they will offer approximately $1.6 billion of funding for “border security” which would not be allowed to fund a concrete wall along the southern border.
The planned meeting is the first between Trump and Democratic leaders since an extraordinary Oval Office meeting in late December. Trump lambasted Schumer and Pelosi in the Oval Office and declared that he would be proud to shut down the government for border wall funding.
Pelosi told Democratic leaders ahead of their Thursday takeover of Congress that they would pass legislation immediately to re-open the government, which did not include any additional funding for the wall that Trump requested. (RELATED: Trump Threatens To Close Border If Democrats Won’t Give Him Wall)
Sanders quickly swatted back at Pelosi’s plans Tuesday evening, saying, “Speaker Designate Nancy Pelosi released a plan that will not re-open the government because it fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of our own citizens. The Pelosi plan is a non-starter.”