US President, Donald Trump is set to meet with top Republicans and Democrats in Congress amid a looming deadline to keep funding the federal government.
Trump’s scheduled meeting with congressional leaders today, Monday, September 29, 2925, comes as the US government is facing a partial shutdown from midnight on Wednesday unless lawmakers can agree on a spending bill.
If Democrats and Republicans fail to pass a spending bill by the deadline, federal government employees will not receive pay during the shutdown period – though they will be eligible for backpay – and those who are not considered essential will be furloughed.
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, there have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980. Most of those only lasted a few days. The longest shutdown in US history, which took place in late 2018 and early 2019, lasted 34 days.
The standoff comes after Democrats in the US Senate earlier this month rejected a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill to keep the government running until November 21, 2025.
Democrats have argued that any spending bill should include provisions to expand healthcare coverage, including by reversing cuts to Medicaid that were included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans argue that healthcare-related provisions should be addressed separately as part of negotiations for a comprehensive spending package.
While Republicans hold 53 seats in the 100-member Senate, at least 60 lawmakers must approve spending bills in the upper chamber.
Trump has shown little interest in entertaining Democrats’ demands on health care, even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting today with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The Republican President has said repeatedly that he fully expects the government to enter a shutdown this week. “If it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down but they’re the ones that are shutting down government,” Trump said last week.
The Trump administration has tried to pressure Democratic lawmakers into backing away from their demands, warning that federal employees could be permanently laid off in the midst of a funding lapse.
However, Democrats argued that Trump’s agreement to hold a meeting shows that he is feeling the pressure to negotiate. They say that because Republicans control the White House and Congress, Americans will mostly blame them for any shutdown.
The planned gathering comes after Trump last week called off a meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, citing what he described as “unserious and ridiculous demands” by Democrats.
Schumer argued that the White House coming back to reschedule a meeting for today showed that “they felt the heat.”
Trump Meeting Deemed “Only A First Step”
Nonetheless, Democratic Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer described the meeting with Trump and his Republican counterparts as “only a first step” to resolving the issue. “We need a serious negotiation,” Schumer said.
“Now, if the President at this meeting is going to rant, and just yell at Democrats, and talk about all his alleged grievances, and say this, that, and the other thing, we won’t get anything done. But my hope is it’ll be a serious negotiation.”
Chuck Schumer
It remains to be seen whether the White House meeting will help or hurt the chances for a resolution. Negotiations between Trump and Democratic congressional leaders have rarely gone well, and Trump has had little contact with the opposing party during his second term.
The most recent negotiation in August between Schumer and the president to speed the pace of Senate confirmation votes for administration officials ended with Trump telling Schumer to “go to hell” in a social media post.
