Top democrats have requested a meeting with President Donald Trump as Congress heads towards a shutdown deadline in 10 days without a clear path out.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to the president, demanding a meeting and accusing him of wanting a shutdown, while urging Republicans to negotiate.
“With the September 30th deadline fast approaching, Republicans will bear responsibility for another painful government shutdown because of the refusal of GOP congressional leadership to even talk with Democrats,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote.
“As a result, it is now your obligation to meet with us directly to reach an agreement to keep the government open and address the Republican healthcare crisis,” they added.
This comes after the Senate last week rejected both Republican and Democratic proposals to keep the government funded at least temporarily, raising the likelihood of a shutdown.
Democratic lawmakers are pushing for funding to preserve health care programs running past the 30 September deadline.
In particular, lawmakers are fighting to maintain enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of this year. This would also reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in the Republicans' big tax break and spending cut bill enacted earlier this year.
Republicans looked unlikely to yield these demands.
Trump has suggested to reporters that he would meet with Democratic leaders, but was dismissive of how effective it would be and blamed democrats for the pending shutdown.
“I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact,” he said.
Schumer and Jeffries have also repeatedly requested meetings with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, but said the Republicans didn’t respond.
Thune said he was open to speaking with Schumer but put the onus on the Democratic leader to reach out to him directly.
“They have something that they want to bring to us and talk about, and certainly we’re open to talking, but like I said before, I’ve been available now for weeks,” Thune said.
If the two sides can’t come to an agreement by 30 September, the U.S. government will be shut down.
