United States President Donald Trump is set to meet with top Republicans and Democrats in Congress amid a looming deadline to keep funding the federal government.
Trump’s scheduled meeting with congressional leaders on Monday comes as the US government is facing a partial shutdown from midnight on Wednesday unless lawmakers can agree on a spending bill.
The standoff comes after Democrats in the US Senate earlier this month rejected a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill to keep the government running until November 21.
Democrats have argued that any spending bill should include provisions to expand healthcare coverage, including by reversing cuts to Medicaid that were included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans argue that healthcare-related provisions should be addressed separately as part of negotiations for a comprehensive spending package.
While Republicans hold 53 seats in the 100-member Senate, at least 60 lawmakers must approve spending bills in the upper chamber.
In interviews on Sunday, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer traded blame for the impasse.
“The ball is in their court,” Thune told NBC News’s Meet the Press. “There is a bill sitting at the desk in the Senate right now, we could pick it up today and pass it.”
Speaking on the same programme, Schumer described the meeting with Trump and his Republican counterparts as “only a first step” to resolving the issue.
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