Shutdown day 19: Trump comes to Congress as GOP faces unity test over wall funding

WASHINGTON - Republicans and Democrats dug in for a protracted standoff on day 19 of the government shutdown Wednesday, after an Oval Office address by President Donald Trump and a rebuttal from Democratic leaders failed to change minds in Congress.

House Republicans displayed striking unity in support of the president in a private meeting on Wednesday morning, participants said, as not a single lawmaker stood up to suggest they support Democratic bills that would reopen much of the government but deny Trump any new money for a border wall.

That unity will face a fresh test Wednesday afternoon, when House Democrats hold a vote to reopen the Treasury Department, legislation that would fund the Internal Revenue Service during the heart of tax as millions of taxpayers file tax returns.

Trump has said he would not sign any legislation to reopen the government unless it contains more than $5 billion in border funding for new walls and other security measures, a demand Democrats have repeatedly refused.

Trump, speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday night, reiterated his message that there's an immigration crisis at the southern border, urging the public back his call for a border wall and painting it as an issue of national security.

Behind closed doors, administration officials have been urging GOP lawmakers to hold the line on Trump's demand that any legislation to reopen government include wall money - even as the prolonged partial shutdown becomes more painful for their constituents.

Trump will make that case personally to Senate Republicans Wednesday at their caucus lunch meeting, and Vice President Mike Pence made a similar case to the House GOP officials on Tuesday evening before Trump's televised address.

Coming out of a gathering Wednesday morning, House Republicans rallied around Trump's depiction of a border crisis.

"What we heard today, all of our colleagues were talking about the crisis," Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said after emerging from the meeting. "I think there's a lot of unity in our conference supporting the president."

A House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal caucus dynamics, said: "No one thinks we're losing and therefore we continue."

Like others in the GOP caucus, this lawmaker said there is no end in sight to the partial government shutdown, and no plan to end it.

Democrats appear equally unmoved, insisting anew that they would never support Trump's wall and suggesting that Republicans would crack amid mounting impacts from the government shutdown that has forced some 800,000 government employees to stay home or work without pay since Dec. 22.

"We expect that with each passing day, additional Republicans in the House, as well as Senate Republicans, will publicly express their objection to keeping the government shut down," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats' conference chairman. "Last week we had about four or five House Republicans join us. We expect that the number will cross into double figures today and as the week proceeds."

A handful of Republicans in both the House and the Senate have broken ranks with Trump and GOP leaders and expressed support for the Democratic strategy of reopening the majority of government, while setting aside the fight over funding for the wall.

But as the White House amped up a lobbying effort aimed at limiting defections from GOP ranks, it was unclear if the dissension would spread much further.

Later Wednesday, there will be another negotiating session at the White House with Trump and top congressional leaders of both parties. It will be the third such gathering in January; the first two, last week, failed to yield any breakthrough. And a White House meeting in December devolved into an on-camera squabbling match between Trump and top Democrats.

Trump continues to demand U.S. taxpayer dollars for the Mexico border wall he long claimed Mexico would pay for. Democrats are refusing to agree to more than $1.3 billion, which continues existing funding levels for fencing and other border protections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. - who Tuesday night followed Trump's address with their own televised appearance denouncing the president's speech as a falsehood-riddled appeal to fear - joined furloughed government workers at an event at the Capitol Wednesday morning.

"They are people, they are families, they are resources in our communities," Pelosi said.

Pelosi insisted that Democrats have offered Republicans a way out by putting bipartisan spending bills on the House floor that Republicans supported in the Senate.

"We'll have given the president a Republican path forward," Pelosi said. "Take your path forward. Take yes for an answer. Instead he has chosen a wall over workers."

Wednesday afternoon's House vote to reopen the Treasury Department and IRS comes after concerns surfaced that the IRS would not be issuing tax refunds during the shutdown. Since then, the IRS has reversed a past position and said that it will continue to issue refunds during a government shutdown, but other services remained impacted.

Last week, seven Republicans broke ranks and supported a package of Democratic spending bills to reopen government, but it's unclear if that number will grow in Wednesday afternoon's vote.

Trump has made clear that he would not sign the Democrats' legislation, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has stated repeatedly that he will not put anything on the floor that does not have the president's support.

"Look, I think most of our members realize that these are nothing more than show votes," said Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., chief deputy whip. "And I think that most members also realize that if they vote 'yes' on these bills and go home and tell their constituents that they voted to reopen the government, they would be pretty disingenuous about it, because we know these bills are going nowhere. . . . Why are you going to cast a vote that you know is going nowhere?"

Trump ended his speech Tuesday night appealing to voters to call their representatives and plead for support for border security and an end to the shutdown.

But as they trickled in and out of a conference meeting Wednesday, Democrats said that they weren't getting many calls in favor of the wall since the president urged Americans to lobby their representatives. One member from an evenly divided district said that there were nearly as many calls urging for Democrats to stop discussing "border security" as there were for the wall." Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who won a Denver-area district that had backed Hillary Clinton over Trump, said that calls were running lopsidedly against wall funding.

"Nothing the president says is very popular in my district," said Crow.

At a gathering of lawmakers representing the D.C. region, home to the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors, several lawmakers said their offices are being flooded with calls, emails and letters from constituents panicking about how they will pay their bills.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., said one furloughed worker told her they returned Christmas presents. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said another couple is considering taking money out of their retirement and kids' college funds, despite financial penalty, to pay for basic needs.

But a number of Republicans said that they were not hearing such concerns from their districts, which in many cases are not home to many federal workers.

"Most of us feel no pressure. In fact it's the opposite in our districts," said one House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

"None of us have any federal employees," the lawmaker said. "We're dug in. I think the Democrats don't realize this isn't a political game we're playing. We really believe in our souls that we have a responsibility to the American people to secure the border. And none of us are feeling pressure. Our districts want the wall."

If the lawmakers are correct and the government shutdown continues through Saturday, it will become the longest continuous shutdown in the nation's history.

Nonetheless, the impacts of the shutdown remain concentrated to specific departments and agencies. Since around 75 percent of the government controlled by Congress was funded in earlier spending bills last year, including major departments such as the Pentagon and the Health and Human Services Department.

Shuttered departments and agencies include Treasury, IRS, the Agriculture Department, the Housing and Urban Development Department, and the National Park Service, among many others.

---

The Washington Post’s David Weigel and Jenna Portnoy contributed to this report.