Trump to meet with Congressional Dem leaders amid shutdown fight

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump plans to accept an invitation from top Congressional Democrats to meet and discuss a solution for avoiding a government shutdown, according to POLITICO. 

There is no word yet on when this meeting will take place. 

Over the weekend, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote a letter to the president demanding a meeting with him. 

In the letter, the lawmakers call the looming shutdown the president's "decision," as they claim that Republicans have refused to negotiate with Democratic leadership at his behest. 

Schumer and Jeffries also claim that the parties' inability to compromise on health care spending is the main sticking point of negotiations.

"We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the health care of the American people," the two lawmakers wrote.

"Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position," they added. "We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican health care crisis."

As of publication, the parties have failed to finalize any deal to keep the federal government open past the Sept. 30 funding deadline. 

Dig deeper:

On Friday, the U.S. Senate rejected competing stopgap bills aimed at funding the government through the deadline. 

The Democratic bill would have extended Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025 and reversed the cuts to Medicaid that were implemented under Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill." Republicans claim, however, that these proposals and others laid out by Democrats would dramatically increase federal spending, per the AP. 

In failing to pass either of the stopgap bills, Congress failed to address the funding issue before it took a break on Friday.

‘[A] closed country for a period of time’ 

What's next:

Senators will return on Sept. 29, just one day before the funding deadline, and no votes will be taken until at least Oct. 1, per Senate leadership. 

This is all to say that a federal shutdown appears likely at this point in time. The president even said last week that there could be "a closed country for a period of time," according to the AP. He added that the government will continue to "take care" of the military and Social Security payments during a shutdown. 

Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have put forward a short-term measure to fund the government, which is a fairly typical way that Congress gets through funding jams. And because no votes will be taken until after the funding deadline, the Senate will essentially be forced to approve the measure if they want to avoid a shutdown. 

During Trump's first term, the country saw a monthlong government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.