26 August, 2017
Tweeted Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.: "Trump threatens to shut down the government unless we vote to put taxpayers on the hook for a wall he promised Mexico would pay for".
Congress will have about 12 working days when it returns on September 5 from its summer break to approve spending measures to keep the government open, while also facing a looming deadline to raise the cap on the amount the government may borrow. At the time, it will have only about 12 working days to approve spending measures to keep the government open.
The party's conservative wing backed the president's call for wall funding, with Representative Jim Jordan of OH, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, telling Reuters any government shutdown would be caused by Senate Democrats.
Trump's threat comes a little more than a month before federal spending authority expires, requiring Congress to act to keep the government fully operating past September 30. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were 14 shutdowns, some partial and most lasting only a few days.
Credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings said a failure to raise the ceiling in a timely manner would prompt it to review its rating on USA sovereign debt, "with potentially negative implications".
Congress needs to reauthorize a law that provides health care to low-income children by the end of September or there will be cuts to funding for that program, and they also must raise the debt ceiling by Sept. 29, or Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the US government could run out of the money needed to pay all of its bills.
Action is needed to raise the debt ceiling by September 29, the administration has warned, although some fiscal experts say the deadline may actually be mid-October.
Ryan said on Thursday that Congress will pass legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling, noting that lawmakers have several options.
Credit ratings agency Fitch said on Wednesday it would review the US sovereign debt rating, "with potentially negative implications", if the debt limit is not raised in a timely manner. An August 2011 standoff cost the country its top-notch bond rating from the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's and caused the most jarring two weeks in financial markets since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. Some analysts say Congress may try to tackle both issues at the same time.
During a campaign rally in Phoenix on Tuesday night, Trump leveled his latest threat about blocking new government funding if it doesn't include the $1.6 billion he wants to partially construct a new wall along the Mexico border. Republicans' slim majority in the Senate means Democrats are needed to pass most legislation and they have opposed including border wall funding in any fiscal 2018 spending bill. Some of them have already indicated they are willing to shut down the government to get it.
The government shutdown in 2013 was led in part by Sen. Trump had blamed McConnell for the failure of the healthcare bill, while McConnell said he doubted that Trump could salvage his presidency.
The Trump administration reversed course earlier this month and said it would back a "clean" raising of the debt ceiling, meaning it would not be tied to other policy measures.