No resolution after Trump, congressional leaders meet on stalemate

WASHINGTON — Talks will continue this weekend after President Donald Trump and congressional leaders failed to end the stalemate over his demand for wall funding at a Friday meeting where he said the federal shutdown could last for “months or even years.”

Trump announced this weekend’s staff-level negotiations between the White House and Congress at a lengthy post-meeting Rose Garden news conference where he also said he was considering using national emergency powers to build the wall.

Both sides called the two-hour, closed-door meeting at the White House on Friday -- on the 14th day of the partial government shutdown — as contentious at times, but Trump also described it as “very, very productive” and that he expects another meeting next week.

“We agreed that we will continue our conversations,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi afterward Friday’s meeting, “but we recognize on the Democratic side that we really cannot resolve this until we open up government.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the Democrats in the room pleaded with Trump to reopen the government. “He resisted,” Schumer said. “In fact, he said he’d keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years.”

Trump, speaking after the Democrats left the White House grounds, acknowledged he had said the partial shutdown could last for months or years if that’s what it takes to end the stalemate and get funding for a border wall.

“We’re all on the same path in terms of wanting to get government open,” Trump said. But he added, “We won’t be opening it until it’s solved.”

The Senate and House have adjourned until next week, an indication that the shutdown would last at least until next Tuesday, when both chambers are scheduled to reconvene. Even then it could take days to pass legislation built on a negotiated agreement.

Asked if he might bypass Congress and use his national emergency powers, Trump said, "We can do it. I haven’t done it. I may do it.”

The fact that neither side budged from their baseline positions – Trump said he still demands $5.6 billion for a wall, and Pelosi and Schumer said they won’t fund a wall -- left little good news for the 800,000 federal employees either idled or working, both groups without pay.

Asked about how those workers would survive without a safety net, Trump said, “The safety net is going to be having a strong border because we’re going to be safe.” But he also said he would urge landlords and others to give a break to those unpaid workers.

In the weekend talks, Vice President Mike Pence will lead the White House team that will include Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump said.

He said he requested that Schumer, Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) send staff members to the negotiations.

McConnell attended the White House meeting, the second one Trump held with congressional leaders this week. But McConnell did not appear with the other Republican lawmakers with Trump in the Rose Garden.

The meeting took place the day after the newly installed Democratic House majority passed two spending bills to reopen the nine departments and other agencies that are closed for lacking of funding.

The Democratic package includes appropriations measures already approved by Senate Republicans for eight departments and extends funding for the Homeland Security Department to Feb. 8, to allow for a month to debate funding for the wall.

But Trump said he would veto the Democrats' spending bills without the $5.6 billion for a border wall. McConnell said he would not bring any legislation to the floor for a vote unless the president said he would sign it into law.