CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s two U.S. senators said Wednesday they would be ready to vote Thursday to end the partial government shutdown.
Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito both spoke to members at the West Virginia Economic Development Council during the council’s legislative conference Wednesday morning in Charleston, addressing economic development issues. The senators will head to Washington, D.C. Thursday to vote on two different bills.
The first measure is President Trump’s bill, that he rolled out on Saturday and the Senate Appropriations Committee released on Monday. The bill is an attempt to pull in Democrats for approval border security and it includes three years of protection for individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program and people with temporary protection status. The measure also included $5.7 billion for a wall on the U.S.- Mexico border.
A spending package to reopen the government is the second bill up for a vote in the Senate tomorrow. This would reopen the government through Feb. 8 without additional money for Trump’s border wall, but would allow for border security negotiations to continue. The bill has already passed the House.
“I’d recommend everybody to vote for both,” Manchin told reporters Wednesday. “Do whatever it takes. Get us back to the table.”
Manchin did predict both bills will fail.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “We’ve got to move off the dime. We’ve got to find a way to open government back up as quickly as possible and then work out our differences.”
Capito confirmed to the media that she will vote for Trump’s bill.
“We need to realize that we need to reopen the government but I do believe we need border security,” she said. “The best way to achieve both of those goals is to solve both of those problems in the same bill. I think that is what President Trump’s bill does.
“I will vote for the President’s bill.”
The government shutdown over funding for the border wall reached day 33 on Wednesday as federal workers are now bracing to miss a second paycheck.
“This is a terrible situation for them,” Capito said. “I have empathy for them and I am working hard to try and get this solved. It’s just the sides are dug in and it is unfortunate that so many people are having to miss that paycheck.”
Manchin called the federal employees’ situations a horrible hardship and said the employees are feeling the pain. He believes that if the measures do not pass on Thursday, it will tell the President, Democrats and Republicans that not much can be put on the table, forcing immediate action. But he questioned how long it would take.
“Those six bills, can’t you at least pass them because we all agree on them,” he said. “Really with a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, the Congress, those are Republican bills and they are never going to give you that opportunity again, so take them. Then let’s hunker down and work whatever it takes on the security of our nation and immigration reform. It needs to be done.
“We are in a political meltdown, the two sides have dug in. I want to work with both sides to find something reasonable. If the President would open up the six bills and let them go, sit down and we’ll fight. I’ll fight with him tooth and nail trying to get the security that is reasonable as long as the custom and border patrol people are using their expertise to move what needs to be done.”
And if either measure cannot get done on Thursday?
“If we can’t get that done, I’m telling the President to please declare a national emergency because this is a self-inflicted national emergency,” he said. “In our prisons, the people that keep ourselves safe, the informants we use around the world, all of these things here are coming to a halt.”
Trump’s proposal announced on Saturday included temporary assistance for DACA, an initiative his administration has worked to end since taking to the oval office. Capito believed that putting DACA back on the table can open more discussion past Thursday if needed.
“The President came with additional items in Saturday’s speech,” she said. “Particularly the DACA and the other immigration issues that have been hotbed issues for certain segments. It was kind of brushed off by the other side but that is an indication that he is willing to bend on those issues and make it a bigger package.
“The bills are starting points. I don’t think they will pass but it is something on the table that we can start to negotiate with. I said this earlier today (Wednesday), I think this can fall together rather quickly and I hope this week is the week.”
Manchin, who said he believes in security and believes in structures where the border customs agents and patrolman say they need to go, thinks politicians in Washington D.C. need to start listening to workers on the border about the issue.
“Politicians shouldn’t be saying ‘I want a wall here, I want a fence here,’ that is not what it is about,” he said. “Listen to the professionals and we’ve taken them out of the equation. Let them come back in and tell us in a two-year period, do the funding that they request, make them audit, let’s audit their spending and make sure they’ve done what they say they are going to do and then move on. We’ve got to get the government open.”
Congressmen Alex Mooney released a statement on Wednesday about the votes coming on Thursday.
“I applaud President Donald Trump for proposing a reasonable deal to build the wall and end the partial government shutdown. I urge all Senators, especially the obstructionist Democrats, to allow for an up or down vote on the bill’s final passage on the floor of the US Senate.
“Thus far, all we have heard from Democrat Congressmen in the House and Senate is a flat “no”. Instead of attempting to work with our President, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer and their allies have vowed to oppose any solution unless it is one hundred percent of what they want and nothing for President Trump and Republicans.”