President Donald Trump castigated Democrats on Friday morning and said they could force a government shutdown because they "want" illegal immigration.
The House passed a continuing resolution with a vote of 230 to 197 on Thursday night to avoid a government shutdown, sending the bill to the Senate.
"Government Funding Bill past [sic] last night in the House of Representatives. Now Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate - but they want illegal immigration and weak borders. Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!" Trump tweeted.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954323750949982208
House Republicans couldn't count on many Democrats supporting the resolution because the short-term bill that funds the government through mid-February does not include a fix for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, which expires in March. This meant that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) needed to pass the spending bill with mostly Republican votes.
Ryan was able to reach a last-minute deal with the conservative House Freedom Caucus to support a short-term government funding bill after they previously threatened they had the votes to defeat it earlier in the day.
The fate of the short-term spending measure is unknown because at least six Republican senators have publicly come out against the measure, leading Senate Democrats to say they are confident they can block it from advancing, NBC News reported:
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed a shorter stop-gap measure, lasting just four or five days, to be used as a hard deadline on an agreement on government spending levels and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA.
In an animated and rare late-night debate on the Senate floor, Schumer and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sparred over the legislation, which would extend government funding for four weeks until Feb. 16. The measure would also fund the low-income children's health insurance program, or CHIP, for six years and delay some taxes that are key sources of funding for Obamacare.
McConnell insisted that it's unreasonable to demand an agreement on immigrants when there is no immediate deadline.