The top four congressional leaders will head to the White House on Monday for a meeting with President Donald Trump in a last-ditch effort to prevent a partial government shutdown.
The meeting, confirmed by sources familiar with the plans, comes after the president scrapped a separate discussion planned with just the two Democratic leaders. After House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer initially secured White House approval for a meeting Thursday, Trump abruptly canceled it after determining Democrats’ asks to be “ridiculous.”
Since then both sides have only dug in more, with the White House budget office putting federal agencies on notice to consider killing entire programs and laying off all their workers if they won’t receive funding during a shutdown. Jeffries called Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who spearheaded the layoffs memo, a “malignant political hack.”
