Senators trudge back...

Senators trudge back to Washington with no shutdown solution in sight

The president is pushing McConnell to ditch the filibuster. But McConnell has repeatedly said no.

By BURGESS EVERETT

Senators are being called back to Washington Friday to vote on the House’s spending bill and its border funding, a futile effort in the face of a Democratic filibuster that will leave the government on the brink of a partial shutdown.

President Donald Trump thinks he has a solution: Urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to get rid of the filibuster to fund the border wall. McConnell has said repeatedly this will not happen.

“Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done! Our Country is counting on you!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning.

Republicans hold 51 Senate seats and need at least nine Democrats to pass most legislation, including funds for the border wall. Yet changing the filibuster rules in the waning days of GOP unified control would offer limited short-term gain and major long-term pain whenever Democrats take over D.C. And conservatives have historically wielded the filibuster to slow down progressive legislation. And there are unlikely to be the votes to change the Senate voting rules to a simple majority.

With a quarter of the government set to close at midnight, there is no apparent plan or compromise that can both pass Congress and earn Trump’s signature. The president said on Thursday that he will not sign a bill that doesn’t provide money for his border wall, blowing up the Senate’s work earlier this week to extend government funding through Feb. 8 with a clean funding bill.

Senate Republicans will meet with the president on Friday morning.

Both parties are digging in for a brutal political conflict with no clear endgame other than House Democrats taking the majority in January and sending the Senate a clean spending bill.

McConnell moved to fund the government without the border wall on Wednesday, a bill that passed without a roll call vote in the Senate. Senators then flew back to their homes all across the country, confident their work was done and thinking they averted disaster.

But by Thursday afternoon, after Trump threatened a veto, senators were given word that they would be needed in D.C. if the House passed a bill funding the government and providing billions for the border wall. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) landed at home after another long flight and then immediately had to turn around.

“Wheels down [at Dulles Airport] ready to vote no on this stupid wall,” Schatz tweeted on Friday morning.

Some senators also expressed frustration they’d voted for a bill they thought the president would sign. “On Wed the WH said [they’re] “open” to Senate bill. They should have just told us they opposed it BEFORE we wasted time voting on it,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

But at least one Republicans agreed with Trump’s call that McConnell should get rid of the legislative filibuster to fund the border wall over Democratic resistance.

“House just passed a bill that fully funds government and enables @realDonaldTrump to secure our border/build the wall. Senate can do same by eliminating the filibuster,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on Twitter.

McConnell is unlikely to bow to that pressure. And Democrats said that the Senate majority leader had the right idea all along. They accused Trump of caving to the pressure from conservatives and House Speaker Paul Ryan of bowing to Trump’s unrealistic expectations rather than voting on the clean spending bill.

“All Speaker Ryan has to do is put it on the floor of the House, it will get a majority of votes, and the president can sign it and avoid a shutdown,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “The Trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown, it will not get him his wall.”

WIth Democrats dug in and the House fresh off voting for his wall, Trump appeared to change tactics. After saying he would be “proud” to take the blame for a shutdown over border security, the president is now shifting to the more traditional technique of attacking the opposition.

“Senator Mitch McConnell should fight for the Wall and Border Security as hard as he fought for anything. He will need Democrat votes, but as shown in the House, good things happen. If enough Dems don’t vote, it will be a Democrat Shutdown!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. “If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time.”