White House Contemplates Weeks More of Shutdown
January 11 2019 - 4:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Michael C. Bender
WASHINGTON -- The partial government shutdown, now three weeks
long, would become the longest in history tomorrow. And it may
extend for weeks to come.
President Trump's aides have started preparations for the State
of the Union speech, discussing how to use the Jan. 29 address if
the shutdown remains in place, White House officials said.
Meanwhile, the White House Office of Management and Budget is
preparing for the shutdown to continue through the end of February,
according to White House officials who have been briefed on the
plans. Mr. Trump on Thursday canceled his trip later this month to
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, citing the
border-security and shutdown negotiations.
"We are continuing to look at all options on the table," White
House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "We would like to get the
government open immediately."
Inside the White House, some aides have discussed using their
captive audience for the State of the Union to have the president
admonish lawmakers for a shutdown that at that point would be on
its 39th day, and to reprimand them by saying they haven't given
enough attention to what the administration views as an immigration
crisis along the southern border. It was unclear whether Mr. Trump
has been briefed on these discussions.
Meanwhile, White House aides were preparing for the shutdown to
continue into the foreseeable future, as some officials argue that
many of the political pressure points that would motivate leaders
to find a solution have been ameliorated.
Enough temporary funding is available for millions of Americans
to continue to receive food stamps through February, Agriculture
Secretary Sonny Perdue has said. The Internal Revenue Service will
pay tax refunds even though the agency is subject to the shutdown,
after the Trump administration reversed a longstanding policy.
An estimated 800,000 federal workers are going without
paychecks, but some White House officials said privately that is
unlikely to generate outrage among most Americans. "What is the
real impetus to make a deal from either side?" one White House
official said. "It's not like the president is going to notice that
the White House is empty."
A senior administration official said that there was "no date in
mind" to end the shutdown. "We are just trying to mitigate the
impact and make this as painless as possible for the American
people long enough to bring the Democrats back to the table," the
senior official said.
The GOP-controlled Senate adjourned around 1 p.m Friday for the
weekend. The White House has no meetings scheduled with
congressional leaders, and the president is considering a
go-it-alone approach that would result in him declaring a national
emergency along the southern border, which may let him pay for the
wall without approval from Congress.
That path would face almost certain legal challenges, and has
raised some concerns even within the White House. Administration
officials are also considering other potential options for the
president to act on his own, according to people familiar with
those discussions, including asking the Army Corps of Engineers to
examine potentially diverting money from other projects to pay for
the border wall.
Mr. Trump, while saying he would still seek a compromise, views
the emergency move as the most efficient way to end the shutdown,
according to people familiar with his thinking. He continued to
suggest that path with a Twitter post Friday that referred to the
immigration issues as a "humanitarian crisis at our southern
border. "
"I just got back and it is a far worse situation than almost
anyone would understand, an invasion!" he wrote.
Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2019 16:11 ET (21:11 GMT)
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