Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Friday said he hoped that President Donald Trump "talked some sense" into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) to avoid a government shutdown when the two met at the White House earlier in the day.
Fox News host Dana Perino asked Cotton if he heard anything from the White House or Capitol Hill about what happened at the meeting between Trump and Schumer. Both men met as lawmakers scramble to pass a short-term spending bill by midnight Friday to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.
Cotton said it was good for congressional leaders and the president to get together to work toward a solution, adding that he hopes the government can avoid what Republicans are calling a "Schumer shutdown."
"Well, I hope the president talked some sense into Senator Schumer and the Democrats so we don't have the Schumer shutdown tonight," Cotton said. "It's a good thing anytime whenever the key leaders of our Congress and the president are talking. I suspect the president told Senator Schumer he needs to talk a little bit more with Senator [Mitch] McConnell and Speaker [Paul] Ryan, though."
Perino then asked Cotton about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which provides legal protections to so-called Dreamers, immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Many Democratic lawmakers have said they will not vote for any government-funding bill unless it preserves DACA.
"Senator Schumer and the Democrats have been very stubborn on this immigration approach," Cotton said. "Remember, we're proposing to keep the government funded for 30 days to continue immigration negotiations, in which Republicans have largely agreed that we want to provide legal protections for young people who were brought here through no fault of their own."
"What we want to make sure we stop, though, is future illegal immigration and future flow of unskilled or low-skilled immigration that undercut wages and take jobs from Americans," Cotton added. "The Democrats don't even want to allow that, because we're willing—we're willing—to provide legal protections to the so-called DACA population."
Cotton then said that Democrats have told Schumer they want to vote for bipartisan funding of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the next six years. CHIP's funding is attached to the continuing resolution that lawmakers need to sign by midnight Friday to keep the government funded for the next 30 days.
"More Democrats are telling Sen. Schumer they want to vote for that [CHIP]. They're just doing it in private and hoping they get a chance to," Cotton said.
"But look, we shouldn't shut down the government and deprive American citizens of services, especially deprive kids of health insurance for the next six years, all because the Democrats are not going to get there way in giving amnesty to illegal immigrants and encouraging more illegal immigration in the future," Cotton said.
"We've got another six weeks to solve that problem; it doesn't really involve government funding, which is what we're debating now," Cotton added, referring to the fact that DACA is set to remain in effect until early March. "We should take those two issues up in sequence."