WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th January, 2019) US President Donald Trump told reporters that he has designated a group to meet over the weekend to address border security issues amid government shutdown talks with Democrats.
Earlier on Friday, Democratic leaders after talks at the White House said they failed to reach a deal with Trump to end the government shutdown which is now two weeks old. The lawmakers said Trump vowed to keep the government closed "for months or even years" until he gets funding to build a wall on the southern border.
"So we had a productive meeting today with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer," Trump said after talks with Democratic leaders at the White House on Friday. "I've designated a group, and we're going to be meeting over the weekend, that group, to determine what we're going to do about the border."
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Friday that the meeting over the weekend will be an attempt for Trump's top people to come up with an agreement to recommend to congressional leaders to end the government shutdown.
According to a pool report released early Friday evening, the White House is scheduling a meeting with Congressional leaders' staff members on Saturday at 11.00 a.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT).
The goal of the meeting will be to work towards an agreement that secures the US border and ends the government shutdown, the pool report said.
Trump earlier during a briefing after the talks confirmed that he had told Democratic leadership that he is prepared to keep the government shutdown for years over the dispute on border wall funding. He underlined that the government will not reopen until the border problem is solved. However, Trump also said he does not think the government will be closed for that long.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives, now controlled by the Democratic Party, passed two bills to seek to end the shutdown. However, the legislation does not include any funding for Trump's border wall.
H.R. 21 would fund the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice, Interior, State, Transportation, and the Treasury through September 30, the release noted, while H.R. 1 would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through February 8.
The White House Budget Office said in a policy statement on Thursday that the Trump administration would veto the new bills passed by the House.
On Thursday night, the bill to fund the various agencies passed the House 241-190. The short-term bill to fund DHS passed 239-192.
