ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Top congressional leaders are heading to the White House tomorrow for a meeting with President Trump less than 48 hours before the government could shut down if they can't reach a deal. Who can stop it? Well, it depends on who you ask. Today on NBC's "Meet The Press," Senate Majority Leader John Thune had this to say.
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JOHN THUNE: Totally up to the Democrats. That - this is - the ball is in their court.
LIMBONG: And here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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CHUCK SCHUMER: It depends on the Republicans.
LIMBONG: So no surprise hearing a lot of the blame game, but what's actually at stake here? Joining us now to talk through this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. Hey, Barbara.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Hey, Andrew.
LIMBONG: All right, Barbara, let's back up a bit. The government funding deadline is end of day Tuesday. Remind us how we got to this impasse between the parties on the Hill.
SPRUNT: Yeah, so Republicans have been trying to advance a temporary funding bill, a continuing resolution to keep federal spending levels flat. We've increasingly seen this a lot on the Hill to avoid shutdowns, and it does always feel like it's at the 11th hour. House Republicans passed this bill. It would fund the government until November 21, but it failed in the Senate. And the Senate now wants to bring it up again tomorrow evening to try to pass it. But Republicans won't be able to do it alone. It needs 60 votes to pass. They only have 53 seats, so they need support from Democrats.
LIMBONG: Which is why there's this late-breaking meeting at the White House tomorrow - right? - to talk through this. And I take it a meeting like this is something Democrats have been clamoring for, yeah?
SPRUNT: Yeah, you're right. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were supposed to meet with the president at the White House this past week. But President Trump canceled that meeting rather abruptly, saying, basically, he didn't see the point in meeting with Democrats when they're demanding, in his view, unreasonable things.
LIMBONG: Well, what are the Democrats asking for?
SPRUNT: Democrats want to secure funding to extend these boosted-up Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year, along with reversing some cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that the GOP passed over the summer in this big tax and spending bill. And the Republican position on this has been fund the government first, and then we can negotiate on extending those credits. Here's Senate Majority Leader John Thune on NBC's "Meet The Press."
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THUNE: That doesn't happen until the end of the year. We can have that conversation, but before we do, release the hostage. Set the American people free, keep the government open, and then let's have a conversation about those premium tax credits. I'm certainly open to that.
SPRUNT: But congressional Democrats have repeatedly said that they want something in writing on this specific aspect in legislation, not just a handshake agreement that it will be addressed later. And I should say, that canceled meeting was slated to be just with President Trump and top Democrats. The meeting on the books tomorrow is with those two top Democrats and their Republican counterparts, as well.
LIMBONG: What would a shutdown mean for the American people?
SPRUNT: Critical services would continue. Americans would keep getting Social Security payments, payments from Medicare, Medicaid, although there could be delays in processing new applications for those programs. Basically, anything deemed nonessential will be put on hold. People could experience delays in some services, like getting certain benefits. National Parks could temporarily close. In the past, there have been some environmental inspections that have been delayed during shutdowns, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed without pay until this funding issue is resolved.
But also, I should say, in a move that kind of seemingly raised the stakes, the White House's budget arm instructed federal agencies last week to draw up lists of workers to fire permanently if there was a shutdown. That's different than the traditional temporarily furloughing people.
LIMBONG: How did Democrats respond?
SPRUNT: Congressional Democrats called it an intimidation tactic. But they also pointed out that the Trump administration has already laid off huge swaths of the federal workforce this year, and Democrats have been saying that it's this meeting with President Trump himself that's coming tomorrow that's going to be crucial for whatever comes next.
LIMBONG: That's NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. Barbara, thanks so much.
SPRUNT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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