Government Shutdown
Report: House GOP leaders worry support for Trump's shutdown is dwindling
Republican leaders are afraid that when the House votes on Wednesday for a Democratic bill to reopen agencies closed in the government shutdown, several dozen GOP lawmakers will side with the Democrats, Politico reports.
Democrats are hoping that Republicans will feel pressure to break from President Trump and vote for the bill, which would fund the Treasury Department, including the IRS, and some of the other nine Cabinet departments affected by the shutdown. A senior House GOP aide told Politico that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is concerned that at least 15 to 25 Republicans will vote with the Democrats. "We have a lot of members who are gonna want to vote for these things," the aide said. "Publicly, we will never tell them to do it. Privately, we will tell them to do what they have to do." Should 55 Republicans join all the Democrats to vote "yes," they'll reach 290 votes and a veto-proof majority, but the aides said McCarthy does not think this will happen.
On Tuesday night, Trump will deliver a televised address on what he is calling a "national security crisis on our southern border," and House Republicans will also hear from Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Trump wants more than $5 billion for a border wall, a demand Democrats have repeatedly nixed. More than 800,000 federal workers have been hit by the shutdown, and their first missed paycheck will be felt this week.