United States 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 on Monday comes as the US government is facing a partial shutdown from midnight on Wednesday unless lawmakers can agree on a spending bill.
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.
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.
In interviews on Sunday, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer traded blame for the impasse.
“The ball is in their court,” Thune told NBC News’s Meet the Press. “There is a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate right now, we could pick it up today and pass it.”
Speaking on the same programme, 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.”
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.
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.
There have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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.
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