WASHINGTON — President Trump agreed to hear out House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a meeting set for Monday amid the looming government shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will also join the sit-down as leaders on both sides of the aisle scramble to avert a partial shutdown ahead of the 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
“Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Jeffries and Schumer said in a joint statement.
“We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
Trump abruptly scrapped a previously planned confab with the Dem leaders last week after consulting Johnson and Thune.
Then, on Wednesday, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought sent out a memo to the heads of federal agencies demanding they draft lists of employees to permanently lay off in anticipation of a partial shutdown.
Schumer called Thune Friday and pushed for a White House meeting due to the rapidly approaching deadline, sources told The Post.
The GOP-led House passed a “clean” stopgap measure to keep the government’s lights on through Nov. 21 earlier this month.
But Senate Democrats blocked the measure, taking advantage of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break.
Democrats have demanded key concessions on healthcare policy, such as reversing the Medicaid reforms Republicans passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (now the Working Families Tax Cut Act) and demanding an extension of the enhanced subsidies in the Affordable Care Act.
A group of House and Senate GOP pols expressed openness to extending the subsidies if additional reforms are made.
But both Thune and Johnson have demanded that legislation be addressed separately from the potential shutdown.
“The deal is not ready to be done,” Thune told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “The government is going to close on Tuesday night at midnight. Let’s keep the government open. Let’s go to work on that issue.
“These were enhancements. And it’s a program, as I said, that is fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse,” he added. “It’s a program in desperate need of reform.”
Johnson previously said the House would tackle the ACA issue later this year, closer to when the enhanced subsidies actually expire.
The Monday meeting could serve as a potential face-saving off-ramp for Democratic leaders, who have come under enormous pressure from their base to put up more of a fight against the Trump administration.
Schumer took heat in March after he declined to block a GOP-backed stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution to forestall a partial government shutdown at the time.
Calls for him to face a primary challenger if he vies for reelection in 2028 grew loud at the time.
The House is currently on recess, and the Senate is set to gavel back into session this week.
Johnson previously indicated he had no intention of summoning House lawmakers back to Washington, DC, on Monday or Tuesday of this week.
That’s meant to put pressure on Senate Democrats to stop blocking the House-passed continuing resolution.
Congress is tasked with funding the government each new fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1. If it fails to do so, the government will enter a partial shutdown.
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