A closed sign is posted on the gate of Smithsonian's...

A closed sign is posted on the gate of Smithsonian's National Zoo on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

WASHINGTON — On their first day in the majority, House Democrats on Thursday night passed a plan to re-open the government without funding President Donald Trump's promised border wall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Presdient Donald Trump Trump and Senate Republicans should "take yes for an answer" and approve the border bill, which was virtually identical to a plan the Senate adopted on a voice vote last month.

The Democratic legislation to re-open the government without funding the wall is going nowhere in the Senate, where Republicans want Trump's endorsement before voting on a funding package.

As the partial government shutdown stretched into its 13th day, Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on Thursday to press the newly installed Congress to pass his $5.6 billion demand for a border wall.

With lawmakers and Trump still deadlocked over a deal that would reopen the government and fund Trump’s proposed southern border wall, the president took to the briefing room for the first time in two years to repeat his long-standing pitch that the wall is needed as a matter of national security.

“’Without a wall you cannot have border security,” Trump said of his 2016 campaign pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Without a very strong form of barrier, call it what you will, but without a wall, you can’t have border security, it won’t work.”

Trump was joined by members of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border patrol agents, at the hastily called afternoon news briefing, which came hours after Pelosi was sworn in as speaker of the House. Trump now faces an added hurdle in passing his agenda with Democrats in control of the once-Republican majority House of Representatives.

Signs placed by staff at a closed campground in the...

Signs placed by staff at a closed campground in the Joshua Tree National Park after the federal government's partial shutdown caused park rangers to stay home and campgrounds to be shut, at the park in California on January 3, 2019. Credit: AFP/Getty Images/MARK RALSTON

The president, who did not field questions from reporters, congratulated Pelosi at the top of his remarks, saying, “Hopefully we’re going to work together and we’re going to get lots of things done, like infrastructure and so much more.”

Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and congressional Republican leaders are slated to resume negotiations with Trump on Friday morning at the White House, after failing to broker a deal during a meeting Wednesday. The shutdown has affected about 800,000 federal workers and has shuttered national parks, museums and local Internal Revenue Service offices.

Pelosi and Schumer reiterated Thursday that Democrats will not support any spending measure that includes funding for the wall. They are pressing Trump and Republican lawmakers to embrace short-term legislation that would reopen nearly a dozen affected federal agencies, while providing $1.3 billion for “border security” measures such as drones and fencing.

“I asked the president to give me one good reason why he should keep large portions of the government shut down while we had a separate debate about the border. He couldn’t name one,” Schumer said in remarks delivered on the Senate floor Thursday.

Pelosi, in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, said that “there is no amount of persuasion” that Trump can use to persuade get Democrats to fund the border wall.

“We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no?” Pelosi said.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Pelosi jokingly said she’d perhaps be willing to give Trump “a dollar” for the wall, before rescinding that offer. “We’re not doing a wall. We are not doing a wall. So that’s that,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will not schedule a Senate vote for any spending bill not first approved by Trump.

Thursday night the White House issued a statement saying Trump would veto the package of legislation to reopen the government put forth by House Democrats because it “does not come close” to meeting the president’s demands for a wall.

“The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to enact appropriations that will adequately secure the Nation’s borders and get the Federal Government back to work for the American people as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Asked if Trump would be willing to accept less than $5 billion in funding, White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp told reporters at the White House: “We’re not going to negotiate in public.”

At the White House briefing room National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, spoke in support of the wall, calling it “an absolute necessity for border patrol agents in securing the border.”

Ronnie Tanner, a horse jockey in the '60s and '70s, and Kendrick Carmouche, a current jockey, spoke about the racism Black jockeys have faced. NewsdayTV's Jamie Stuart reports. Credit: Ed Murray, Jonathan Singh

'I had to keep my mouth shut'  Ronnie Tanner, a horse jockey in the '60s and '70s, and Kendrick Carmouche, a current jockey, spoke about the racism Black jockeys have faced. NewsdayTV's Jamie Stuart reports.

Ronnie Tanner, a horse jockey in the '60s and '70s, and Kendrick Carmouche, a current jockey, spoke about the racism Black jockeys have faced. NewsdayTV's Jamie Stuart reports. Credit: Ed Murray, Jonathan Singh

'I had to keep my mouth shut'  Ronnie Tanner, a horse jockey in the '60s and '70s, and Kendrick Carmouche, a current jockey, spoke about the racism Black jockeys have faced. NewsdayTV's Jamie Stuart reports.

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