File photo: US President Donald Trump (Picture credit: AP)
US President Donald Trump is planning to meet with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Monday, one day before the federal government faces a potential shutdown, a White House official and congressional sources confirmed. According to news agency AP, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., along with house Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will be attending the meeting.The development comes after Trump abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Democratic leaders on Thursday at the urging of Johnson and Thune, calling Democratic demands “unserious and ridiculous”. The president has faced mounting pressure as the September 30 funding deadline approaches, with Congress needing to pass a spending bill to prevent a shutdown at 12:01 am (local time) on Wednesday.“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office,” Schumer and Jeffries said in a joint statement Saturday evening. “We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out”, the statement added. Democrats are demanding key health care provisions be attached to any short-term funding measure, including an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the reversal of cuts to Medicaid included in earlier Republican legislation, as per AP.Republicans have rejected these conditions as nonstarters, insisting on a straight seven-week extension of current funding. GOP leaders have argued that health care and other policy discussions can occur separately from the emergency spending negotiations. Johnson previously acknowledged encouraging Trump not to meet Democratic leaders until they “do the basic governing work of keeping the government open”.Tensions have escalated in recent days, with the White House Office of Management and Budget instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans in case of a shutdown. A senior White House official described the administration’s approach bluntly and was quoted as saying by Politico, “We’re going to extract maximum pain… Democrats will pay a huge price for this”. Officials said Trump and his allies believe Democrats will be blamed for any disruptions, while GOP members are prepared to repeatedly force votes in the Senate.Despite the posturing, Democrats maintain that the president must negotiate to secure their votes. “In what world do you ask people for their votes without sitting down and having a conversation with them,” said Shalanda Young, former OMB director under President Biden, as per Politico. Every Senate Democrat, except for Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, voted last week against a clean, seven-week funding measure backed by Republicans.The Monday meeting will be the latest effort to find common ground before federal agencies potentially halt nonessential operations, risking mass layoffs and service disruptions across the country.
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