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Press Briefing by OMB Director Mick Mulvaney and Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short on the Potential Government Shutdown
Press Release:
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room • January 19, 2018
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Morning. Just here to get you folks up to speed on where things stand regarding the potential lapse in funding - the shutdown.
OMB is preparing for what we're calling the "Schumer shutdown." It still surprises me - and I've been through some of these before - that the Democrats in the Senate are opposing a bill that they don't oppose. They're for clean CRs; they're for the extension to the CHIP program. Many of them support the delay in some of the taxes, most specifically the medical device tax, the Cadillac tax, especially. They don't oppose anything in the bill, but they are opposing the bill.
I just want to let everybody know that we don't want this. We do not want a shutdown. But if Mr. Schumer insists on it, he is in a position to force this on the American people.
From an OMB perspective, because we're involved in managing a lapse or a shutdown - and we want to make folks understand that it will look very different than it did under the previous administration. One of the things that I've learned since I've been in this office is that - there's no other way to describe it - but the Obama administration weaponized the shutdown in 2013. What they didn't tell you was that they did not encourage agencies to use carry forward funds, funds that they were sitting on, nor did they encourage agencies to use transfer authority.
They could have made the shutdown in 2013 much less impactful, but they chose to make it worse. The only conclusion I can draw is they did so for political purposes. So it will look different this time around. We've also got - we can answer questions - take your questions about specifics on that.
Marc Short is also here to give you a very brief update on where we stand, and then we'll take your questions for a few minutes.
You want to go ahead?
MR. SHORT: Thank you all for your time this morning. As Mick said last night, the House passed a bipartisan bill with 230 votes. The President stands ready to sign that bill to keep the government functioning and afloat. It appears, unfortunately, that Senate Democrats are entrenched in forcing a shutdown.
I think that there's obviously a lot of hypocrisy in this town. I think there's some ironies to point out. As the Director said, Nancy Pelosi a couple years ago called them, "I call them legislative arsonists" -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: That was me. (Laughter.)
MR. SHORT: - in referring to those who were voting for a shutdown at the time, commenting that, "They're there to burn down what we should be building up, in terms of investments in education and scientific research."
Chuck Schumer said at the time, "It's sort of like this. Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says, let's negotiate over the price of your house." In essence, that's the same tactic they're deploying.
Last night, I'm sure many of you know, you all asked Senator Feinstein her position, and she said that if the government shuts down, people will die. And as a follow-up question on how she's going to vote, she said she hasn't decided yet; people are going to die, I don't know how I'm going to vote on this.'
So here we are. I think the reality is that this is not about policy, it's about politics. As Mick said, we're not familiar with anything in this CR that Democrats are opposing. In fact, they champion and support the CHIP program. This will reauthorize it for six years. I believe a new study says there are 9 million children now getting health insurance through that program. The reality is that we will jeopardize payments for our military and our troops and those serving on the frontline of our country, both at Customs and Border Patrol, ICE, those who are trying to protect our borders and protect our country.
This is a serious issue. We are frustrated, obviously, because Mick's job is to submit a budget to Congress. Let's keep that in perspective. Mick does that in February. Congress has months to complete appropriations process. The fiscal year ends on September 30th; we're now in mid-January. It is frustrating to all of us that we're in this position.
But what's unclear is, what is it that Democrats are asking in order to get out of a shutdown? It seems that they are just hell-bent on getting to a shutdown. We are anxious to make sure that our troops and those serving on the frontlines of our country continue to get paid.
Q So, Marc, a couple things on that. I think we know what the Democrats are asking for; they want a deal on DACA.
The President, on the other hand, tweeted last year that, "Our country needs a good 'shutdown'." Isn't he getting exactly what he asked for? And it was the President, as I'm sure you know, the last time we had a government shutdown, who said it is the President's responsibility to lead. He needs to get the players in the room; he needs to lead. So how is he going to lead on this?
MR. SHORT: Jon, couple points there. One, the President was very active yesterday in bringing together the House votes to get 230 votes. He was speaking to Freedom Caucus members. I think that was where we had the best challenge yesterday, and he helped get that bill accomplished.
I think he's making continued calls this morning. He's called both bipartisan members today. He will continue to do that. He is leading on this issue.
Regarding DACA, we feel that the administration has put forward our plans on this. Keep in mind that Secretary Kelly, a year ago, went to Congress and said: We need a solution on DACA. We asked Congress to fix it. We knew what was going to happen when several states sued the federal government over Obama's unconstitutional policy here. We gave them plenty of heads up and warning on this.
Back in the fall, we submitted our priorities to Congress, in October. We then refined those, at their request, to say, "This is too much." We basically negotiated against ourselves and winnowed down that list for them, to say, here are practical things that are necessary to get to a deal on DACA. We have put forward that plan.
We think that, right now - you just saw a study a couple days ago that showed 2,500 people on the terror watch list are trying to get into this country every year. That is seven per day - seven per day. We think it's time to fix the immigration problems in our country, and we have put forward a proposal to do exactly that.
We're continuing to have conversations. I think we had productive conversations yesterday with Leader McCarthy, Steny Hoyer, Senator Durbin, and Senator Cornyn. We're about to go back up to the Hill to continue those conversations. I think they're making progress.
What doesn't make sense is to say we're going to shut down the government just because you're making progress, but I need something else.
Q Let me ask you a couple questions, to Director Mulvaney, if I may. To the President's comments about s-hole countries, what responsibility does he bear for the challenges there have been to try to come to some deal?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Yeah, go back to what Marc just said. Let's make one thing clear about - one of the differences between where we are now and where we were in 2013. The President is actively working right now to try to prevent a shutdown. I will contend to you that is dramatically different than what President Obama was doing in 2013. I was there, okay? I was involved heavily in this in 2013, and I will tell you that it's absolutely my belief that President Obama wanted a shutdown in 2013 because he thought Democrats would - excuse me, Republicans would get blamed.
Q Let's talk about today.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: So let's talk about today. The President, as Marc just pointed out, actively worked all day yesterday to try and get a bill through the House, and continues conversations today. So there's no way you could lay this at the feet of the President of the United States. He is actively working to try to get a deal. That's one of the differences.
Q So why not bring leadership here as a last ditch effort?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I think the President's continued bipartisan conversations, I don't - I'm not privy to his -
Q But why not do a conversation in person?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, I'm not privy to the meetings the President may or may not be having.
Q This is a question for Marc. Marc, I know we're talking government shutdown, but this is an important topic for the expected 100,000 or more people taking part in the March for Life today. So I want to ask, the Pain-Capable 20-week abortion ban that fast-tracked in the Senate, when do you expect the vote? And why does the White House want a vote if it's likely to die?
MR. SHORT: I think this administration has continued to defend life from the very beginning. The Vice President, last year, was the first Vice President to speak to the March for Life. The President is hosting people here to protect life. It's an important issue for this administration. You saw, with the reversal of the Mexico City policy, the President has looked to make sure that we are making sure that taxpayer dollars are not used overseas to fund abortions. That is a commitment of this administration.
Q But when will the Senate vote?
MR. SHORT: We don't have a date as to when the Senate will vote. But to your question about whether or not it fails or passes, we think it's important for this administration to be on record in support of life.
If I could go back to the second-to-the-last question about bringing leaders over here. Keep in mind, just last week, we had a bipartisan meeting here that the President organized with leadership to try to get to a resolution on DACA.
Out of that meeting, discussion was, after the press had departed, discussion was that the four leaders - McCarthy, Durbin, Cornyn, and Hoyer - would be the ones organizing the meetings moving forward to get to the solution. That's what we've been part of.
So when you ask, why isn't the President bringing members over here - he did. He has tried to reach - the biggest issue, they say, is their question, which is shutting down the government over illegal immigration - he is trying to solve that problem, and brought them here for that conversation.
Q If I could just ask about your comment at the beginning of this. You said this was the "Schumer shutdown." How can it be the Schumer shutdown when Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Come on, you know the answer to that as well as anybody. I mean, I have to laugh when people say that. "Oh, well, you control the House, the Senate, and the White House - why can't you get this done?"
Q But you do. You do.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: You know as well as anybody that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill. Right? You know that.
Q I know that.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Okay, so when you only have 51 votes in the Senate, then you have to have Democrat support in order to keep the government - to fund the government. So that's the answer to your question.
Q So the President asked Congress to come up with a solution for the DREAMers, Congress was in the room - members of Congress were in the room with the President last week. It seemed to be a fairly productive meeting. And then the whole process got blown up. And it seems -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Republicans tried to -
Q And if I may, it seems that the whole process was blown up by the President's comments. So why not just give the Democrats the DREAMers, and you can get out of this?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: When Republicans tried to add a discussion about Obamacare to the funding process in 2013, we were accused by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer of inserting a non-fiscal - a non-financial issue into the spending process in order to shut the government down. How is that not exactly what is happening today? There is no reason that you have to deal with DACA this week. There's no reason you have to deal with DACA before the end of February - excuse me, the middle of February. DACA doesn't expire until March 5th. This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats, led by Mr. Schumer - it's why we call it the "Schumer shutdown" - in order to try and get a shutdown that they think this President gets blamed for.
Yes, ma'am.
Q You're saying that you need Democrat support in the Senate. So are there -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: We got it in the House.
Q So are there any concessions that this White House is willing to make to possibly try to get support from those Democrats that you need?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, go back to what I said at the opening. They don't oppose anything in there. They support CHIP. In fact, every member of the Finance Subcommittee or something like that, voted - a Democrat has voted for this exact CHIP extension. They don't want the Cadillac tax to go into place. They've always supported clean CRs. Why would you have to - those are concessions. Ordinarily, you would just simply put up a clean CR and let them vote it. And again, it worked in the House; there were several Democrats who voted for it.
Q So is it take-it-or-leave-it on the bill that passed the House? They have to take - so Democrats have to support the bill in the House to avert a shutdown?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Democrats should support the bill in the Senate. Again, the House has passed a bill, okay? The Senate has a couple different choices. They cannot take it up. This is basic civics, right? Either they take it up and pass it, take it up and don't pass it, or they change it and send it back to the House.
The point of the matter is, though, there ae things on this bill that they like. They have nothing in this bill that they do not like. The only reason they are not voting for it is that they want other things to be added to it and they want a shutdown. That's the only explanation we have.
Yes, ma'am.
Q The main thing Democrats want added is DACA.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Yeah.
Q And you've said before - many of you have said, everyone agrees they want a solution on DACA. So what is the big sticking point, then, on your end about including a DACA fix in this bill?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I think Marc mentioned that earlier. The bill is simply not ready. You don't get to vote on a summary. You don't get to vote on -
Q (Inaudible) months to work on this.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: There have been months of work. As you see with any major piece of legislation, it doesn't and shouldn't come together overnight. There's no DACA bill to vote on and there's no emergency in terms of the timing on DACA. DACA does not expire until March 5th. So there's absolutely no reason to tie these two things together right now.
Go Back
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room • January 19, 2018
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Morning. Just here to get you folks up to speed on where things stand regarding the potential lapse in funding - the shutdown.
OMB is preparing for what we're calling the "Schumer shutdown." It still surprises me - and I've been through some of these before - that the Democrats in the Senate are opposing a bill that they don't oppose. They're for clean CRs; they're for the extension to the CHIP program. Many of them support the delay in some of the taxes, most specifically the medical device tax, the Cadillac tax, especially. They don't oppose anything in the bill, but they are opposing the bill.
I just want to let everybody know that we don't want this. We do not want a shutdown. But if Mr. Schumer insists on it, he is in a position to force this on the American people.
From an OMB perspective, because we're involved in managing a lapse or a shutdown - and we want to make folks understand that it will look very different than it did under the previous administration. One of the things that I've learned since I've been in this office is that - there's no other way to describe it - but the Obama administration weaponized the shutdown in 2013. What they didn't tell you was that they did not encourage agencies to use carry forward funds, funds that they were sitting on, nor did they encourage agencies to use transfer authority.
They could have made the shutdown in 2013 much less impactful, but they chose to make it worse. The only conclusion I can draw is they did so for political purposes. So it will look different this time around. We've also got - we can answer questions - take your questions about specifics on that.
Marc Short is also here to give you a very brief update on where we stand, and then we'll take your questions for a few minutes.
You want to go ahead?
MR. SHORT: Thank you all for your time this morning. As Mick said last night, the House passed a bipartisan bill with 230 votes. The President stands ready to sign that bill to keep the government functioning and afloat. It appears, unfortunately, that Senate Democrats are entrenched in forcing a shutdown.
I think that there's obviously a lot of hypocrisy in this town. I think there's some ironies to point out. As the Director said, Nancy Pelosi a couple years ago called them, "I call them legislative arsonists" -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: That was me. (Laughter.)
MR. SHORT: - in referring to those who were voting for a shutdown at the time, commenting that, "They're there to burn down what we should be building up, in terms of investments in education and scientific research."
Chuck Schumer said at the time, "It's sort of like this. Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says, let's negotiate over the price of your house." In essence, that's the same tactic they're deploying.
Last night, I'm sure many of you know, you all asked Senator Feinstein her position, and she said that if the government shuts down, people will die. And as a follow-up question on how she's going to vote, she said she hasn't decided yet; people are going to die, I don't know how I'm going to vote on this.'
So here we are. I think the reality is that this is not about policy, it's about politics. As Mick said, we're not familiar with anything in this CR that Democrats are opposing. In fact, they champion and support the CHIP program. This will reauthorize it for six years. I believe a new study says there are 9 million children now getting health insurance through that program. The reality is that we will jeopardize payments for our military and our troops and those serving on the frontline of our country, both at Customs and Border Patrol, ICE, those who are trying to protect our borders and protect our country.
This is a serious issue. We are frustrated, obviously, because Mick's job is to submit a budget to Congress. Let's keep that in perspective. Mick does that in February. Congress has months to complete appropriations process. The fiscal year ends on September 30th; we're now in mid-January. It is frustrating to all of us that we're in this position.
But what's unclear is, what is it that Democrats are asking in order to get out of a shutdown? It seems that they are just hell-bent on getting to a shutdown. We are anxious to make sure that our troops and those serving on the frontlines of our country continue to get paid.
Q So, Marc, a couple things on that. I think we know what the Democrats are asking for; they want a deal on DACA.
The President, on the other hand, tweeted last year that, "Our country needs a good 'shutdown'." Isn't he getting exactly what he asked for? And it was the President, as I'm sure you know, the last time we had a government shutdown, who said it is the President's responsibility to lead. He needs to get the players in the room; he needs to lead. So how is he going to lead on this?
MR. SHORT: Jon, couple points there. One, the President was very active yesterday in bringing together the House votes to get 230 votes. He was speaking to Freedom Caucus members. I think that was where we had the best challenge yesterday, and he helped get that bill accomplished.
I think he's making continued calls this morning. He's called both bipartisan members today. He will continue to do that. He is leading on this issue.
Regarding DACA, we feel that the administration has put forward our plans on this. Keep in mind that Secretary Kelly, a year ago, went to Congress and said: We need a solution on DACA. We asked Congress to fix it. We knew what was going to happen when several states sued the federal government over Obama's unconstitutional policy here. We gave them plenty of heads up and warning on this.
Back in the fall, we submitted our priorities to Congress, in October. We then refined those, at their request, to say, "This is too much." We basically negotiated against ourselves and winnowed down that list for them, to say, here are practical things that are necessary to get to a deal on DACA. We have put forward that plan.
We think that, right now - you just saw a study a couple days ago that showed 2,500 people on the terror watch list are trying to get into this country every year. That is seven per day - seven per day. We think it's time to fix the immigration problems in our country, and we have put forward a proposal to do exactly that.
We're continuing to have conversations. I think we had productive conversations yesterday with Leader McCarthy, Steny Hoyer, Senator Durbin, and Senator Cornyn. We're about to go back up to the Hill to continue those conversations. I think they're making progress.
What doesn't make sense is to say we're going to shut down the government just because you're making progress, but I need something else.
Q Let me ask you a couple questions, to Director Mulvaney, if I may. To the President's comments about s-hole countries, what responsibility does he bear for the challenges there have been to try to come to some deal?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Yeah, go back to what Marc just said. Let's make one thing clear about - one of the differences between where we are now and where we were in 2013. The President is actively working right now to try to prevent a shutdown. I will contend to you that is dramatically different than what President Obama was doing in 2013. I was there, okay? I was involved heavily in this in 2013, and I will tell you that it's absolutely my belief that President Obama wanted a shutdown in 2013 because he thought Democrats would - excuse me, Republicans would get blamed.
Q Let's talk about today.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: So let's talk about today. The President, as Marc just pointed out, actively worked all day yesterday to try and get a bill through the House, and continues conversations today. So there's no way you could lay this at the feet of the President of the United States. He is actively working to try to get a deal. That's one of the differences.
Q So why not bring leadership here as a last ditch effort?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I think the President's continued bipartisan conversations, I don't - I'm not privy to his -
Q But why not do a conversation in person?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, I'm not privy to the meetings the President may or may not be having.
Q This is a question for Marc. Marc, I know we're talking government shutdown, but this is an important topic for the expected 100,000 or more people taking part in the March for Life today. So I want to ask, the Pain-Capable 20-week abortion ban that fast-tracked in the Senate, when do you expect the vote? And why does the White House want a vote if it's likely to die?
MR. SHORT: I think this administration has continued to defend life from the very beginning. The Vice President, last year, was the first Vice President to speak to the March for Life. The President is hosting people here to protect life. It's an important issue for this administration. You saw, with the reversal of the Mexico City policy, the President has looked to make sure that we are making sure that taxpayer dollars are not used overseas to fund abortions. That is a commitment of this administration.
Q But when will the Senate vote?
MR. SHORT: We don't have a date as to when the Senate will vote. But to your question about whether or not it fails or passes, we think it's important for this administration to be on record in support of life.
If I could go back to the second-to-the-last question about bringing leaders over here. Keep in mind, just last week, we had a bipartisan meeting here that the President organized with leadership to try to get to a resolution on DACA.
Out of that meeting, discussion was, after the press had departed, discussion was that the four leaders - McCarthy, Durbin, Cornyn, and Hoyer - would be the ones organizing the meetings moving forward to get to the solution. That's what we've been part of.
So when you ask, why isn't the President bringing members over here - he did. He has tried to reach - the biggest issue, they say, is their question, which is shutting down the government over illegal immigration - he is trying to solve that problem, and brought them here for that conversation.
Q If I could just ask about your comment at the beginning of this. You said this was the "Schumer shutdown." How can it be the Schumer shutdown when Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Come on, you know the answer to that as well as anybody. I mean, I have to laugh when people say that. "Oh, well, you control the House, the Senate, and the White House - why can't you get this done?"
Q But you do. You do.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: You know as well as anybody that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill. Right? You know that.
Q I know that.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Okay, so when you only have 51 votes in the Senate, then you have to have Democrat support in order to keep the government - to fund the government. So that's the answer to your question.
Q So the President asked Congress to come up with a solution for the DREAMers, Congress was in the room - members of Congress were in the room with the President last week. It seemed to be a fairly productive meeting. And then the whole process got blown up. And it seems -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Republicans tried to -
Q And if I may, it seems that the whole process was blown up by the President's comments. So why not just give the Democrats the DREAMers, and you can get out of this?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: When Republicans tried to add a discussion about Obamacare to the funding process in 2013, we were accused by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer of inserting a non-fiscal - a non-financial issue into the spending process in order to shut the government down. How is that not exactly what is happening today? There is no reason that you have to deal with DACA this week. There's no reason you have to deal with DACA before the end of February - excuse me, the middle of February. DACA doesn't expire until March 5th. This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats, led by Mr. Schumer - it's why we call it the "Schumer shutdown" - in order to try and get a shutdown that they think this President gets blamed for.
Yes, ma'am.
Q You're saying that you need Democrat support in the Senate. So are there -
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: We got it in the House.
Q So are there any concessions that this White House is willing to make to possibly try to get support from those Democrats that you need?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, go back to what I said at the opening. They don't oppose anything in there. They support CHIP. In fact, every member of the Finance Subcommittee or something like that, voted - a Democrat has voted for this exact CHIP extension. They don't want the Cadillac tax to go into place. They've always supported clean CRs. Why would you have to - those are concessions. Ordinarily, you would just simply put up a clean CR and let them vote it. And again, it worked in the House; there were several Democrats who voted for it.
Q So is it take-it-or-leave-it on the bill that passed the House? They have to take - so Democrats have to support the bill in the House to avert a shutdown?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Democrats should support the bill in the Senate. Again, the House has passed a bill, okay? The Senate has a couple different choices. They cannot take it up. This is basic civics, right? Either they take it up and pass it, take it up and don't pass it, or they change it and send it back to the House.
The point of the matter is, though, there ae things on this bill that they like. They have nothing in this bill that they do not like. The only reason they are not voting for it is that they want other things to be added to it and they want a shutdown. That's the only explanation we have.
Yes, ma'am.
Q The main thing Democrats want added is DACA.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Yeah.
Q And you've said before - many of you have said, everyone agrees they want a solution on DACA. So what is the big sticking point, then, on your end about including a DACA fix in this bill?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I think Marc mentioned that earlier. The bill is simply not ready. You don't get to vote on a summary. You don't get to vote on -
Q (Inaudible) months to work on this.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: There have been months of work. As you see with any major piece of legislation, it doesn't and shouldn't come together overnight. There's no DACA bill to vote on and there's no emergency in terms of the timing on DACA. DACA does not expire until March 5th. So there's absolutely no reason to tie these two things together right now.
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