House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that President Donald Trump is willing to meet with congressional leaders to avoid a government shutdown but accused Democrats of using the talks for political leverage.
The Louisiana Republican told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump agreed to sit down with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries after initially rejecting a meeting.
“He feels the same way that I do about this. He’s always open to discussion, but he wants to operate in good faith,” Johnson said.
Pressed on whether Trump was willing to negotiate, Johnson said the president wants leaders “to come in and act like leaders and do the right thing for the American people,” but he declined to preview specific terms.
The speaker added that Republicans are pushing a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded past Sept. 30, when the fiscal year ends.
House and Senate appropriators have been advancing individual spending bills, but time is running out to complete the process, he said.
“All it does is keep the government open so appropriators can continue to do this work together, [in a] bipartisan [way],” Johnson said of the measure.
He accused Schumer, D-N.Y., of adding “a long laundry list of partisan demands,” including what Johnson described as restoring healthcare coverage for undocumented immigrants. “We are not doing that. We can’t do that. That’s just one of the crazy things he’s requested,” Johnson said.
Jeffries, in remarks Friday, said Democrats are focused on preserving subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to prevent more than a million Americans from losing coverage, but Johnson rejected that characterization, saying the subsidies are not set to expire until the end of December.
“There is nothing partisan about this continuing resolution. Nothing,” Johnson said.
The speaker also warned that services such as troop pay, WIC nutrition assistance, telehealth, and FEMA disaster relief could lapse if Democrats block the temporary measure.
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