Republican and Democratic parties leaders reaffirmed their positions on funding the border wall on Tuesday following a contentious meeting between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders at the White House.
Trump has threatened to use his veto powers to get $5 billion for a security wall along the southern border.
This puts the government on a path toward a shutdown — with the deadline to pass the remaining spending bills approaching on December 21.
The president and Democratic leaders met to discuss the issue, but an at-first polite meeting quickly turned into an argument.
“President Trump has a $5 billion request in,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said during a Republican press conference following the meeting.
“I think we need to fully fund border security because border security is national security.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reaffirmed their opposition to fully funding the border wall during their difficult meeting with the president.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) remarked afterward that Democrats had previously supported much more for border walls and fences.
Related: Trump Threatens Shutdown Over Border Wall as Meeting with Dem Leaders Unravels
“On the topic of border security, I think that’s clearly an expectation that people reasonably have,” Blunt said during the press conference.
“If you can be for $25 billion in building walls and fences, why can’t you be for $5 billion in building walls and fences. This is not that hard a problem to solve and is a reasonable expectation of people from their government.”
The White House meeting quickly devolved into contention when it came to the topic of border wall funding. Schumer argued that lawmakers shouldn’t shut down the government over a simple policy dispute.
Trump proclaimed he was willing to shut down the government in the name of border security. He even said he would take full blame if things did come to that.
“We gave the president two options that would keep the government open,” Schumer said at a Democratic press conference following the meeting. “It’s his choice to accept one of these options or shut the government down. You heard the president — he wants a shutdown.”
Schumer said they first offered the president a deal in which they would pass six of the remaining appropriations bills and a one-year continuing resolution for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding bill to give time to debate border security.
The second option was for a one-year continuing resolution for all of the remaining spending bills.
“No president should ever say that he would be proud to shut down the government,” Schumer said. “He’s clinging to his position of billions of dollars for a wall. President Trump’s position will not result in a wall, but it will instead result in a Trump shutdown. The president has called for a shutdown at least 20 times since he came into office. We said his plan can’t pass either chamber, so we gave him to reasonable options.”
Related: Democrat Leaders Bash Border Wall Funding Ahead of Trump Meeting
Congress still has seven spending bills to pass to avoid a government shutdown before December 21.
Congress was able to fund most of the government by passing the two biggest minibus packages. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held out hope during the Republican press conference that lawmakers would avoid a shutdown.
“I can’t predict when an agreement will be reached on the government funding bill, so we’re just going to keep processing these issues as rapidly as we can,” McConnell said. “I understand that it was a rather spirited meeting. We all watched. But I would still like to see a smooth ending here and I haven’t given up hope that’s what we’ll have.”
The Senate and House last week had to pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for two weeks to avoid a shutdown on December 7. Both chambers quickly passed the resolution within an hour of each other, with a voice vote.
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