CHARLESTON — West Virginia’s two U.S. senators said Wednesday they would be ready to vote today to end the partial government shutdown.
Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito both spoke to members at the West Virginia Economic Development Council during the council’s legislative conference Wednesday morning in Charleston, addressing economic development issues. The senators will head to Washington, D.C., today to vote on two different bills.
The first measure is a bill President Trump rolled out Saturday and the Senate Appropriations Committee released on Monday. The bill is an attempt to pull in Democrats for approval of border security and includes three years of protection for individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program and people with temporary protection status. The measure includes $5.7 billion for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A spending package to reopen the government is the second bill up for a vote in the Senate. This would reopen the government through Feb. 8 without additional money for Trump’s border wall. The bill passed the House.
“I’d recommend everybody to vote for both,” Manchin told reporters Wednesday. “Do whatever it takes. Get us back to the table.”
Manchin predicted both bills will fail.
“It’s a shame,” he said.
“We’ve got to move off the dime. We’ve got to find a way to open government back up as quickly as possible and then work out our differences.”
Capito confirmed she will vote for Trump’s bill.
“We need to realize that we need to reopen the government, but I do believe we need border security,” she said. “The best way to achieve both of those goals is to solve both of those problems in the same bill. I think that is what President Trump’s bill does.
“I will vote for the President’s bill.”
The government shutdown over funding for the border wall reaches day 34 today as federal workers brace to miss a second paycheck Friday.
“This is a terrible situation for them,” Capito said. “I have empathy for them, and I am working hard to try and get this solved. It’s just the sides are dug in, and it is unfortunate that so many people are having to miss that paycheck.”
Manchin said if the measures fail today, it will tell the President, Democrats and Republicans not much can be put on the table, forcing immediate action. He questioned how long it would take.
“Those six bills, can’t you at least pass them because we all agree on them,” he said. “Really with a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, the Congress, those are Republican bills, and they are never going to give you that opportunity again, so take them. Then let’s hunker down and work whatever it takes on the security of our nation and immigration reform. It needs to be done.”
If either measure fails, Manchin will ask Trump to declare a national emergency.
Capito said putting DACA back on the table can open more discussion.
“The President came with additional items in Saturday’s speech,” she said. “Particularly the DACA and the other immigration issues that have been hotbed issues for certain segments. It was kind of brushed off by the other side, but that is an indication that he is willing to bend on those issues and make it a bigger package.”
She said the bills give them a place to start, and she hopes this is the week things start to happen.
Manchin said politicians in Washington, D.C., need listen to workers on the border about the issue.
“Politicians shouldn’t be saying ‘I want a wall here, I want a fence here.’ That is not what it is about,” he said. “Listen to the professionals, and we’ve taken them out of the equation. Let them come back in and tell us in a two-year period, do the funding that they request, make them audit, let’s audit their spending and make sure they’ve done what they say they are going to do and then move on. We’ve got to get the government open.”
By Jake Flatley
Jacob.Flatley@wvmetronews.com
Twitter @WVMetroNews
