Budget Director Mick Mulvaney says it's "hard to imagine" what else Trump can do to end shutdown
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Monday that it's "hard to imagine" President Trump being more engaged in an effort to end the current government shutdown that began early Saturday. "I'm hard-pressed on what else the president can do...It's hard to imagine the president being more engaged," Mulvaney said in an interview on "CBS This Morning."
Mulvaney said that Mr. Trump has continued to work the phones over the weekend.
"This president is working very hard to make sure it didn't happen in the first place," he said. "Now that it's here, he's working hard to make sure it stops."
Mulvaney said that Congress should not be negotiating over "a nonfinancial issue," referencing immigration and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program with government funding.
"They should not be tied to the government funding bill," he said.
Mulvaney said that he thought that the shutdown would have been over by Monday morning, and speculated that Senate Democrats' effort to block the initial short-term spending bill Friday was merely an attempt to deny Mr. Trump the weekend at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate his first year in office.
He said he wouldn't be surprised if the government reopens today, but added that it "could go on for several days." The last shutdown in October 2013 lasted for 16 days.
The Senate is expected to vote Monday at noon on a short-term funding bill that would keep the government funded through Feb. 8.
