WASHINGTON — Congressional and White House negotiators made progress Tuesday on a spending bill to keep the federal government open days ahead of a deadline as President Donald Trump indicated that U.S. funding for a border wall with Mexico could wait until September.
Republicans are also vetting proposed changes to their health care bill that they hope will attract enough votes to finally push it through the House.
The efforts come with Congress back from a two-week break just days before Trump's 100th day in office, this Saturday.
The same day, federal agencies would have to close unless lawmakers pass a $1 trillion spending bill financing them or legislation keeping them open temporarily while talks continue.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that administration negotiators including Trump's budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, "feel very confident" that a shutdown won't occur.
Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the budget measure, had a less charitable version of negotiations. In a conference call with reporters aimed at criticizing Trump's first 100 days as ineffective, party leaders said the biggest shutdown threat was from Trump's demand that the spending bill include funds for the barricade along the Mexican border.
That threat appeared to be easing Monday evening when Trump told reporters from conservative media that he would be willing to return to the funding issue in September. Two people in the room described his comments to The Associated Press.
Those comments represented a retreat from just last week, when Mulvaney said getting money for Trump's wall in the budget bill was one of the administration's "priorities."
Nonetheless, Trump tweeted Tuesday, "Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., approved of Trump's apparent shift. "The president's comments this evening are welcome news given the bipartisan opposition to the wall, and the obstacle it has been to the continuing bipartisan negotiations in the appropriations committees," she said in a statement late Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "It's good for the country that President Trump is taking the wall off the table in these negotiations." Both Democratic leaders had criticized Trump earlier Monday.
Trump had told supporters Mexico would pay for the wall, but with Mexico refusing to foot the bill he now wants Congress to make a down payment. The wall's cost estimates range past $20 billion. Republicans are seeking an initial $1.4 billion in the spending bill.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.