As the partial government shutdown continues into its second week, President Trump has invited a bipartisan group of top lawmakers to the White House for talks, two congressional sources say.

The meeting, described as a "briefing" on "border security," would take place Wednesday, a day before Democrats are set to take over the House, the sources tell NPR's Scott Detrow.

The White House has not responded to questions about the invitation, which was first reported by Politico. But President Trump hinted at the talks in a New Year's Day tweet.

"Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" Trump asked.

Replying to Trump's tweet, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is set to take over as speaker, wrote that the president "has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown."

Trump has insisted on $5.7 billion for a southern border wall, but Democratic congressional leaders have stood firm against the funding.

The House is expected to vote on a funding bill to end the partial government shutdown on Thursday. That's the first day of the new Congress, when Democrats will take control of the chamber and are expected to elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker.

According to a Democratic leadership aide, the legislation will include the full-year appropriations for six of the seven outstanding funding bills. And it would provide stopgap funding until Feb. 8 for the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the fight over border wall funding is contained.

About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed during the partial shutdown or are working without pay. On Friday, Trump issued an executive order freezing the salary rates for civilian federal workers.</s>WASHINGTON: Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to vote on Thursday on a funding package to end the 10-day-old partial U.S. government shutdown, without providing the $5 billion President Donald Trump has demanded for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The planned vote sets up a Democratic showdown with Trump’s fellow Republicans on an issue dear to the president on the first day of divided government in Washington since he took office in January 2017 with a Congress led by his own party.

Democrats formally take control of the House from the Republicans after winning a majority of seats in November’s congressional elections.

The two-part Democratic package filed on Monday in the House includes a bill to keep funding for the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8 with no new wall funding, as well as a bundle of six measures worth nearly $265 billion combined that would fund the other shuttered agencies through the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year.

The two parts will be voted on separately on the House floor on Thursday, said Democrats, who will hold a 36-seat majority.

If approved in the House, the funding package would go to the Republican-led Senate. Its prospects there appear unpromising, although Trump’s unpredictability makes it hard to gauge how the shutdown showdown will play out.

“It’s simple: The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign,” said a spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

The Democratic legislation will mark the first major battle pitting the incoming Democratic House majority led by Nancy Pelosi against Trump and McConnell.

Democrats oppose Trump’s demand for wall funding, with Pelosi calling the wall immoral, ineffective and expensive.

Democrats hope their two-pronged funding approach will put Senate Republicans in a tough position. If they reject funding for departments unconnected to border security, Republicans could be seen as holding those agencies and their roughly 800,000 affected workers hostage to Trump’s wall demand.

“Then they are complicit with President Trump in continuing the Trump shutdown and in holding the health and safety of the American people and workers’ paychecks hostage over the wall,” Pelosi and Schumer said in their statement.

Non-border-related agencies include the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice.

Democrats said the entire package is based on legislation that has already been passed by either the Senate or Senate committees.

The shutdown, which began on Dec. 22 and has idled roughly a quarter of the federal government, was precipitated by Trump’s demand, under pressure from conservative commentators, that Congress approve $5 billion to help fund a wall that was a promise made in his 2016 election campaign, although he said at the time it would be paid for by Mexico.

Trump has called the wall crucial to combating illegal immigration and drug trafficking. The Senate on Dec. 21 failed to muster the votes needed to pass Republican-backed House legislation that included Trump’s wall funding. Passage in the Senate would need at least some Democratic support to reach the 60-vote threshold required.

A central issue in finding a resolution could be the definition of what constitutes a wall, including the idea of steel slats and other types of barriers versus a concrete structure.

Trump on Twitter criticized Democratic opposition to the wall project, which carries a total estimated price tag of $23 billion. He also seemed to contradict comments made by outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

In a Los Angeles Times interview published on Sunday, Kelly said: “To be honest, it’s not a wall.”

“The president still says ‘wall’ – oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it,” Kelly added.

Trump wrote on Twitter that border security could not exist “without a strong and powerful Wall.”

Trump, who canceled his vacation in Florida and has stayed at the White House during the holiday government shutdown while first lady Melania and their son Barron were at Trump’s private estate Mar-a-Lago in Florida for New Year’s Eve, said Democrats could have come over for talks anytime.

“I’m in Washington. I’m ready, willing and able,” Trump told Fox News.

White House officials did not reply to an email asking whether the president had been in touch directly with Democratic leaders to set up a round of talks.

Pelosi has not heard formally from the White House since Dec. 11, when she and Schumer had a contentious Oval Office meeting with the president, Democratic aides said. Schumer has not heard from the White House since he met with Vice President Mike Pence and incoming White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Dec. 22, Democratic aides said.</s>WASHINGTON — The Latest on a partial government shutdown over money for President Donald Trump’s border wall (all times local):

President Donald Trump says the southern border is “like a sieve,” and he’s lamenting how U.S. authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 migrants trying to breach the border fence in Tijuana.

Trump spoke during a White House meeting with his Cabinet as the partial government shutdown continues into its 12th day. Congress and the president are at an impasse over funding for Trump’s pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump says a complete wall is needed. Trump says people then couldn’t enter unless they were a “champion pole vaulter.”

Trump’s statement on crossings contradicts the Department of Homeland Security. In 2000, about 1.6 million people were apprehended crossing illegally. In FY 2017, there were about 310,000.

Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are expected to attend a briefing on border security at the White House as the government remains partially shut down and President Donald Trump asks in a tweet, “Let’s make a deal?”

The shutdown began Dec. 22. Funding for Trump’s pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been the sticking point in passing budgets.

The briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, the day before Democrats assume control of the House.

Pelosi has said that Democrats will pass legislation to reopen government but not provide funding for a wall.

The White House is calling the Democratic plan a “non-starter,” saying it fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of its own citizens.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Three confidants of President Donald Trump, including his departing chief of staff, are indicating that the president’s signature campaign pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would not be fulfilled as advertised. But the president disagrees.

Trump sparked fervent chants of “Build that wall!” at rallies before and after his election and more recently cited a lack of funding for a border wall as the reason for partially shutting down the government. At times the president has also waved off the idea that the wall could be any kind of barrier.

However, White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Sunday that Trump abandoned the notion of “a solid concrete wall early on in the administration.”

“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Kelly said, adding that the mix of technological enhancements and “steel slat” barriers the president now wants along the border resulted from conversations with law enforcement professionals.

Along the same lines, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway called discussion of the apparent contradiction “a silly semantic argument.”

“There may be a wall in some places, there may be steel slats, there may be technological enhancements,” Conway told “Fox News Sunday.” ”But only saying ‘wall or no wall’ is being very disingenuous and turning a complete blind eye to what is a crisis at the border.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is close to the president, emerged from a Sunday lunch at the White House to tell reporters that “the wall has become a metaphor for border security” and referred to “a physical barrier along the border.”

Though, Trump tweeted Monday morning that he has not abandoned his plans for an all-concrete wall.

“An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media,” Trump tweeted early Monday. “Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!”

Graham said Trump was “open-minded” about a broader immigration agreement, saying the budget impasse presented an opportunity to address issues beyond the border wall. But a previous attempt to reach a compromise that addressed the status of “Dreamers” — young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children— broke down last year as a result of escalating White House demands.

Graham said he hoped to end the shutdown by offering Democrats incentives to get them to vote for wall funding and told CNN before his lunch with Trump that “there will never be a deal without wall funding.”

Graham proposed to help two groups of immigrants get approval to continue living in the U.S: about 700,000 young “Dreamers” brought into the U.S. illegally as children and about 400,000 people receiving temporary protected status because they are from countries struggling with natural disasters or armed conflicts. He also said the compromise should include changes in federal law to discourage people from trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

“Democrats have a chance here to work with me and others, including the president, to bring legal status to people who have very uncertain lives,” Graham said.

The partial government shutdown began Dec. 22 after Trump bowed to conservative demands that he fight to make good on his vow and secure funding for the wall before Republicans lose control of the House on Wednesday. Democrats have remained committed to blocking the president’s priority, and with neither side engaging in substantive negotiation, the effect of the partial shutdown was set to spread and to extend into the new year.

In August 2015 during his presidential campaign, Trump made his expectations for the border explicitly clear, as he parried criticism from rival Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor.

“Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a ‘fence,'” he tweeted. “It’s not a fence, Jeb, it’s a WALL, and there’s a BIG difference!”

Trump suggested as much again in a tweet on Sunday: “President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version!”

Aside from what constitutes a wall, neither side appeared ready to budge off its negotiating position. The two sides have had little direct contact during the stalemate, and Trump did not ask Republicans, who hold a monopoly on power in Washington until Thursday, to keep Congress in session.

Talks have been at a stalemate for more than a week, after Democrats said the White House offered to accept $2.5 billion for border security. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn’t acceptable, nor was it guaranteed that Trump, under intense pressure from his conservative base to fulfill his signature campaign promise, would settle for that amount.

Conway claimed Sunday that “the president has already compromised” by dropping his request for the wall from $25 billion, and she called on Democrats to return to the negotiating table.

“It is with them,” she said, explaining why Trump was not reaching out to Democrats.

Democrats maintain that they have already presented the White House with three options to end the shutdown, none of which fund the wall, and insist that it’s Trump’s move.

“At this point, it’s clear the White House doesn’t know what they want when it comes to border security,” said Justin Goodman, Schumer’s spokesman. “While one White House official says they’re willing to compromise, another says the president is holding firm at no less than $5 billion for the wall. Meanwhile, the president tweets blaming everyone but himself for a shutdown he called for more than 25 times.”

After canceling a vacation to his private Florida club, Trump spent the weekend at the White House. He has remained out of the public eye since returning early Thursday from a 29-hour trip to visit U.S. troops in Iraq, instead taking to Twitter to attack Democrats. He also moved to defend himself from criticism that he couldn’t deliver on the wall while the GOP controlled both the House and Senate.

“For those that naively ask why didn’t the Republicans get approval to build the Wall over the last year, it is because IN THE SENATE WE NEED 10 DEMOCRAT VOTES, and they will gives us “NONE” for Border Security!,” he tweeted. “Now we have to do it the hard way, with a Shutdown.”

Trump tweeted again Monday morning about needing the Democrats to come to the table.

“I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall,” he tweeted. “Our Southern Border has long been an “Open Wound,” where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an fix!”

Democrats have vowed to pass legislation restoring the government as soon as they take control of the House on Thursday, but that won’t accomplish anything unless Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate go along with it.

The shutdown has forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors to stay home or work without pay.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: What are your thoughts on the border wall, and do you care if it’s a wall or a fence? Share your thoughts below.</s>As the partial government shutdown continues into its second week, President Trump has invited a bipartisan group of top lawmakers to the White House for talks, two congressional sources say.

The meeting, described as a "briefing" on "border security," would take place Wednesday, a day before Democrats are set to take over the House, the sources tell NPR's Scott Detrow.

The White House has not responded to questions about the invitation, which was first reported by Politico. But President Trump hinted at the talks in a New Year's Day tweet.

"Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" Trump asked.

Replying to Trump's tweet, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is set to take over as speaker, wrote that the president "has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown."

Trump has insisted on $5.7 billion for a southern border wall, but Democratic congressional leaders have stood firm against the funding.

The House is expected to vote on a funding bill to end the partial government shutdown on Thursday. That's the first day of the new Congress, when Democrats will take control of the chamber and are expected to elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker.

According to a Democratic leadership aide, the legislation will include the full-year appropriations for six of the seven outstanding funding bills. And it would provide stopgap funding until Feb. 8 for the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the fight over border wall funding is contained.

About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed during the partial shutdown or are working without pay. On Friday, Trump issued an executive order freezing the salary rates for civilian federal workers.</s>The Latest: Trump again calls for complete wall at border

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a partial government shutdown over money for President Donald Trump's border wall (all times local):

President Donald Trump says the southern border is "like a sieve," and he's lamenting how U.S. authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 migrants trying to breach the border fence in Tijuana.

Trump spoke during a White House meeting with his Cabinet as the partial government shutdown continues into its 12th day. Congress and the president are at an impasse over funding for Trump's pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump says a complete wall is needed. Trump says people then couldn't enter unless they were a "champion pole vaulter."

Trump's statement on crossings contradicts the Department of Homeland Security. In 2000, about 1.6 million people were apprehended crossing illegally. In FY 2017, there were about 310,000.

Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are expected to attend a briefing on border security at the White House as the government remains partially shut down and President Donald Trump asks in a tweet, "Let's make a deal?"

The shutdown began Dec. 22. Funding for Trump's pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been the sticking point in passing budgets.

The briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, the day before Democrats assume control of the House.

Pelosi has said that Democrats will pass legislation to reopen government but not provide funding for a wall.

The White House is calling the Democratic plan a "non-starter," saying it fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of its own citizens.</s>President Trump invited top lawmakers to the White House for talks as the partial government shutdown continued. Trump last met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (at right) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Dec. 11. Mark Wilson

Updated at 11:51 a.m. ET Wednesday

As the partial government shutdown continues into its second week, President Trump has invited a bipartisan group of top lawmakers to the White House for talks.

"The President has invited Republican and Democrat leaders in Congress to the White House for a border security briefing from senior Department of Homeland Security officials on Wednesday, and he remains committed to reaching an agreement that both reopens the government and keeps Americans safe," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Tuesday.

Trump's 3 p.m. ET meeting with the top eight Republican and Democratic congressional leaders is set a day before Democrats take over the House.

President Trump hinted at the talks in a tweet earlier Tuesday.

"Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" Trump asked.

Replying to Trump's tweet, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is set to take over as speaker, wrote that the president "has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown."

Trump has insisted on $5.7 billion for a southern border wall, but Democratic congressional leaders have stood firm against the funding.

The House is expected to vote on a funding bill to end the partial government shutdown on Thursday. That's the first day of the new Congress, when Democrats will take control of the chamber and are expected to elect Pelosi as speaker.

According to Pelosi, the legislation will include the full-year appropriations for six of the seven outstanding funding bills. And it would provide stopgap funding until Feb. 8 for the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the fight over border wall funding is contained.

"It is important to note that these bills contain no new wall funding," Pelosi said in a letter Tuesday to Democratic House members.

Sanders said the Democrats "so far have refused to compromise" and called Pelosi's plan a "non-starter because it does not fund our homeland security or keep American families safe from human trafficking, drugs, and crime."

About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed during the partial shutdown or are working without pay. On Friday, Trump issued an executive order freezing the salary rates for civilian federal workers. NPR's Scott Detrow contributed to this report. Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.</s>Donald Trump and top congressional leaders failed to resolve a partial government shutdown that has stretched well into a second week as the president refused to back off from his demands for billions of dollars for a long-promised wall along the southern US border with Mexico.

Democratic and Republican leaders from both chambers were invited to the the White House’s Situation Room, the inner sanctum for classified meetings, on Wednesday for a “border security briefing”. During the meeting Trump asked Department of Homeland Security officials to “make a plea” for his wall.

At a cabinet meeting prior to the briefing, Trump warned that parts of the government would could remain closed for a “a long time” without a deal.

“We’re asking the President to open up government,” Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to assume the speakership of the House of Representatives on Thursday, said after the briefing with the president. “We are giving him a Republican path to do that. Why would he not do it?”

The shutdown was triggered by Trump’s demand that Congress allocate more than $5bn in taxpayer money to build a wall along the 2,000-mile border between the US and Mexico – a concession Democrats refuse to make.

The shutdown, which entered its 12th day on Wednesday, has affected nearly 800,000 federal workers. The incoming House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, said Trump invited leaders back to the White House on Friday.

Pelosi said the Democrats will still vote on Thursday, as Congress starts its new session with the Democratic party in the majority in the House after victories in the midterm elections last November. Democrats intend to introduce a pair of funding bills that would end the shutdown, but without money for a border wall. They bills would allocate $1.3bn for border security measures, such as increased surveillance and fencing.

The White House has called such a legislative package a “non-starter”.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation last month that would have funded the government through 8 February without money for a border wall. But Republican leaders in the House refused to hold a vote on the measure.

“Our question to the president and to the Republicans is why don’t you accept what you have already done [in order] to open up government?” Pelosi said.

On Capitol Hill after the briefing on Wednesday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, told reporters that it could take “weeks” to break the stalemate and that Wednesday’s meeting did not produce “any particular progress”.

“We are hopeful that somehow in the coming days or weeks we will be able to reach an agreement,” he added.

The White House visit by Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was their first since their televised showdown with Trump in the Oval Office last month.

Schumer said he implored Trump to reopen the government while they debated their differences over the border wall.

“We asked him to give us one good reason – I asked him directly,” Schumer said. “He could not give a good answer.”

He added: “To use the shutdown as hostage – which they had no argument against – is wrong.”

Trump made his case for the wall during extensive comments to the press in which he made several false claims and mischaracterizations. At the start of his cabinet meeting, Trump said the border was “like a sieve” and insisted the US needed a “physical barrier” to deter illegal border crossers.</s>It's officially a new year, but unfortunately not much has changed since December 2018. The partial government shutdown, which kicked off onDec. 22, 2018, is still underway, and at this point most people want it to be over. So, in order to possibly find a solution to this, a compromise must be made. However, Donald Trump's meeting with congressional leaders about the shutdown is happening in a... pretty loaded place. Who knows how this will pan out.

On Wednesday, Jan. 2, The Hill reported that President Trump plans to hold a shutdown meeting with leaders from Capitol Hill the same day in the Situation Room. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment about this report, but did not hear back in time for publication. During the meeting, Trump will reportedly discuss his concerns about the southern border and the importance of border security. Trump's insistence on receiving $5 billion to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall has been one of the main reasons behind the partial government shutdown, as he and House members have yet to come to an agreement on the funds.

So, as we enter day 11 of the shutdown, it's reassuring to see that a meeting is in the works. However, the fact that it's taking place in the White House's Situation Room is a bit unnerving. How so? Well, the Trump administration definitely hasn't had the best luck in past Situation Room meetings, especially after former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman recorded (and released) alleged audio of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her in that very room in August 2018.

On the other hand, Trump holding the meeting in the Situation Room means that there probably won't be a do-over of the infamous Oval Office meeting between him, Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Vice President Mike Pence. In case you missed it, the meeting was basically a televised sparring match between Trump and the Democratic leaders over the border wall, in which all three argued relentlessly and no solution was found.

For those of you wondering: what is the Situation Room? Here's a quick rundown. Basically, this space is one of the most important conference rooms within the White House, and only the uppermost important topics are discussed and seen between those walls. Before entering the room, everyone has to forfeit their phones to ensure top security, which is why Omarosa sneaking in a recorder was such a huge deal. So, the fact that Trump plans to hold a meeting to discuss the shutdown in a no-tech-allowed room might actually be a solid plan. (As long as everyone follows the rules, that is.)

At first, some might have thought this partial government shutdown was a temporary problem that would be fixed right away. However, as the government continues to be shut down nearly two weeks later, clearly this problem isn't going to be resolved as easily as we'd hoped. So, Trump will meet with both Democrats and Republicans to discuss future possibilities. Those leaders who have reportedly RSVP'd "yes" to the meeting include top Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, as well as GOP members Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, just to name a few.

However, if Trump and these congressional leaders can't come to a decision soon, then Democrats might be taking matters into their own hands, as Democrats plan to vote to reopen the government when they take over the House on Jan. 3. So, even if this conversation with Trump doesn't go over well, there's good chance that there might be a Plan B. However, the likelihood that this plan is able to pass through the Republican-controlled Senate or get approved by Trump is still highly unlikely.

As 2019 continues to move along, let's hope some bipartisan change will actually be made. In the meantime, if I were the Trump administration, I would be banning phones as if it was a Dave Chapelle show. Better safe than viral.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning a vote on Thursday on a funding package to end the 10-day-old partial U.S. government shutdown without providing the $5 billion President Donald Trump has demanded for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The planned vote sets up a Democratic showdown with Trump’s fellow Republicans on an issue dear to the president on the first day of divided government in Washington since he took office in January 2017 with a Congress led by his own party. Democrats will formally take control of the House from the Republicans on Thursday after winning a majority of seats in November’s congressional elections.

The two-part package will include a bill to keep funding for the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8 with $1.3 billion for border security, as well as measures to fund other shuttered agencies through the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year, Democratic congressional aides said on Monday.

If approved in the House, the government funding package would go next to the Republican-led Senate. Its Senate prospects appear unpromising though Trump’s unpredictability makes it hard to gauge how the shutdown showdown will play out.

The Democratic legislation will mark the first major battle pitting the incoming Democratic House majority led by Nancy Pelosi against Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said his chamber will not consider any legislation Trump would not support.

Democrats oppose Trump’s demand for wall funding, with Pelosi calling the wall immoral, ineffective and expensive.

Democrats expect their two-pronged funding approach could put Trump and his Republican allies in a tough position. If they reject funding bills for departments unconnected to border security, Republicans could be seen as holding those agencies and their roughly 800,000 affected workers hostage to Trump’s wall demand. Those include the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice.

The homeland security piece of the Democratic package is based on a measure that has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

The partial government shutdown, which began on Dec. 22 and has idled roughly a quarter of the federal government, was precipitated by Trump’s demand, under pressure from conservative commentators, that Congress approve $5 billion to help fund a wall that was a promise made in his 2016 election campaign, though he said at the time it would be paid for by Mexico.

Trump has called the wall crucial to combating illegal immigration and drug trafficking. The Senate on Dec. 21 failed to muster the votes needed to pass Republican-backed House legislation that included Trump’s wall funding.

A central issue in finding a resolution could be the definition of what constitutes a wall including the idea of steel slats and other types of barriers versus a concrete structure.

Trump on Twitter criticized Democratic opposition to the wall project, which carries a total estimated price tag of $23 billion. He also seemed to contradict comments about the administration’s position on the wall made by outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Sunday, Kelly said, “To be honest, it’s not a wall.”

“The president still says ‘wall’ - oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended towards steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it,” Kelly added.

Trump said in a Twitter post that border security cannot exist “without a strong and powerful Wall.”

“An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media,” Trump wrote. “Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!”

Some policy analysts were optimistic the shutdown could be near an end.

“We attach high (75 percent) odds on the White House and new Congress resolving differences to the government shutdown next week,” said Charles Gabriel, an analyst at policy research and strategy firm Capital Alpha Partners.

A senior Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Senate Democrats support the House legislative plan and that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has been in constant contact with Pelosi about it.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally on some issues, met with the president on Sunday and told reporters afterward he was optimistic that Republicans, Democrats and Trump could reach a deal to end the shutdown that includes wall funding and legal status for some illegal immigrants.

But Graham said there would never be a government spending deal that did not include money for a wall or other physical barriers on the southern border.
U.S. President Donald Trump requests a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers to discuss the wall as a partial government shutdown enters its second week.