WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will meet with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Monday as the clock draws nearer to a potential government shutdown, one White House and four congressional officials told NBC News.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., are expected to attend.
Punchbowl first reported the news.
The development comes after Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Democratic leaders on Thursday, at the urging of Johnson and Thune. The president at the time called Democratic demands “unserious and ridiculous.”
Since then, Jeffries and Schumer have been trading very public barbs with Trump over the looming government shutdown and Democrats’ demands to attach health care policies to the temporary funding bill.
Jeffries and Schumer issued a joint statement Saturday evening.
“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office,” the Democratic leaders said. “As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people. We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
Republicans have insisted that they won’t make concessions to pass a short-term funding bill for seven weeks, and that any negotiations can occur during the appropriations process.
Tensions escalated when the White House Office of Management and Budget this week instructed agencies to prepare mass firing plans in case of a shutdown.
Government funding is set to expire on Sept. 30, threatening the jobs of millions of federal workers. Congress must pass or extend a spending bill before Oct. 1 to prevent a shutdown.
Schumer called Thune on Friday and “urged him to get President Trump to meet because the deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching,” according to a Schumer aide.
Senate Democrats are also planning to hold a conference call on Sunday afternoon ahead of the chamber’s return to D.C.
