Top congressional leaders head to the White House ahead of shutdown deadline

The top four leaders in Congress are scheduled to meet with President Trump on Monday afternoon at the White House, just ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.

The Oval Office meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is set to occur ahead of an expected Senate vote on a short-term stopgap bill.

House Republicans narrowly passed a continuing resolution earlier this month that would fund the government through Nov. 21. That measure failed in the Senate because of Democratic opposition. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber; they need 60 votes to pass the legislation.

“We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican health care crisis. Time is running out,” said Jeffries and Schumer on Saturday in a statement regarding the White House meeting.

A meeting redo

Monday’s Oval Office meeting comes after President Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting last week with the two Democratic leaders.

“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump posted on social media.

Democrats are pushing to make permanent expanded tax cuts from the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, and repeal cuts to health care programs that were put in place as part of the GOP’s spending and tax bill bill passed earlier this summer.

Republicans are pushing to fund the government first, and then negotiate on the subsidies.

“[The expiry date] doesn’t happen until the end of the year. We can have that conversation,” Thune said on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “But before we do, release the hostage, set the American people free, keep the government open and let’s have a conversation about those premium tax credits. I’m certainly open to that.”

But top Democrats have repeatedly said a handshake agreement on a future negotiation about the subsidies isn’t enough.

“We need a serious negotiation,” Schumer said in a separate appearance on Sunday’s Meet the Press. “Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that and the other thing, we won’t get anything done. But my hope is it will be a serious negotiation.”

The clock is ticking

Without congressional action, government funding will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1.

While critical services would continue, like Social Security and payments from Medicare and Medicaid, there could be delays in processing new applications for those programs.

In a shutdown, anything deemed nonessential is put on hold, so Americans could experience delays in certain services and hundreds of thousands of federal workers will go without pay.

In a move to seemingly raise the stakes, the White House’s budget arm instructed federal agencies to prepare to lay off workers permanently, instead of the traditional temporary furlough.

Congressional Democrats panned the memo as an intimidation tactic.

“This is nothing less than mafia-style blackmail,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told NPR. “Essentially, the president is threatening to fire dedicated federal employees who have nothing to do with the ongoing political and policy dispute.”

If the administration makes good on its threat, it could mean that whenever the federal government does reopen, it would have a smaller workforce.