Government shutdown: Paul Ryan says House would back short-term deal
House Speaker Paul Ryan told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the House is ready to accept a Republican-proposed spending bill that would end the government shutdown and fund the federal government through February 8th if the Senate acts is able to pass it on Sunday.
"What Leader McConnell is going to be offering is one that has a different date on it. We passed a bill keeping things funded until Feb. 16. He is going to bring up a bill keeping things funded until Feb. 8. We've agreed that we would accept that in the House. And so, we will see sometime today, whether or not they have the votes for that. And that's really where we are right now," Ryan said of the current situation playing out on Capitol Hill.
The House passed a continuing resolution on Friday that would have extended existing levels of funding until Feb. 16. That measure was defeated in the Senate by Democrats who demanded a deal on immigration and disaster-relief funding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said early Saturday morning that he would bring a revised version to the floor which would extend funding until Feb. 8. That vote is set for 1 a.m. Monday.
A deal to end the impasse over immigration has been elusive, and both chambers are set to reconvene for rare Sunday sessions. McConnell told reporters on Saturday that lawmakers would be "right back at it" for "as long as it takes."
On Sunday, Ryan blamed Congressional Democrats for the shutdown, saying it was "solely done" by their party by "opposing a bill they're in support of."
"We're waiting for the Senate Democrats to open the government back up," said Ryan. "It's absolutely meaningless. They shut down the government over a completely unrelated issue. And the bill that they're opposing is a bill that they support, which is just baffling to us."
The bill passed by the House on Friday included funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but failed to address DACA, the program protecting immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Ryan said Democrats "blew up negotiations" over DACA.
"What's so baffling about this was we were negotiating in good faith on DACA all the same. We actually want to solve this problem. So it's not as if we were saying, 'No way, no how. No discussions,'" he said. "They blew up the negotiations that were already underway."
He called DACA a "symptom of a broken immigration system," saying that House Republicans continue to support the president's goals of having immigration legislation that includes border security, border wall funding and repeal of the Diversity Visa Program.
"We want to move from a system of immigration based on family relations to one based on skills and merits for what the economy needs. Perfectly common sense. Here's the issue. If we simply did DACA without incumbent reforms, then you'd have a DACA problem five years down the road. We want to fix the problem and the root cause of the problem," said Ryan.
Ryan also responded to an ad released Saturday by Mr. Trump's re-election campaign that suggested Democrats who oppose the administration were "complicit" in murders committed by undocumented immigrants.
The ad, simply titled "Complicit," includes footage of undocumented immigrant Luis Bracamontes, who is on trial for murdering two deputies in the Sacramento, California, area in October 2014. The ad, paid for by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., does not say if or when it will air on television, or at what cost.
"President Trump is right. Build the wall. Deport criminals. Stop illegal immigration, now," the ad says. "Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe."
Ryan said he was not sure the ad was "necessarily productive," but reiterated that Democrats were "not helping us getting to a solution on negotiation."
"When you shut down the government and stop negotiation on immigration reform, they're complicit with not getting things done," he added.
Ryan said that Republicans want to "fix the root cause of the problem while we address the symptom of the problem," adding that the government should be back up and running in order to resume those negotiations.