BUDGET/DEMS/GOP: “The Senate returns on Wednesday [1-3-18] with its Republican majority down to one seat and buoyed Democrats issuing a full list of demands — such as funding children’s health care and protecting young undocumented immigrants — just weeks before another possible government shutdown.
Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate will meet on Wednesday with White House officials to try to come to terms on a deal to raise strict limits on military and domestic spending before Jan. 19, when the current stopgap spending bill expires.
If negotiations break down, the government could run out of money — just as President Trump marks his first year in office.
Democratic demands are ambitious, topped by a legislative shield for the young undocumented immigrants whose Obama-era protection from deportation was ended by Mr. Trump. They are also pushing for broader intervention in the opioid epidemic, a boost for veterans’ care, disaster relief to hurricane-stricken areas, and financing for the Children’s Health Insurance Program…
Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, cast protection for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children as a ‘moral issue,’ saying that resolving the fate of the so-called Dreamers was a prerequisite for enacting any long-term spending plan…
And Mr. Trump is looking for a fight. On Tuesday he goaded Democrats on the immigration issue.”
-Sheryl Gay Stolberberg and Thomas Kaplan, “Democrats Outline Demands as Threat of Shutdown Looms,” The New York Times online, Jan. 2, 2018