--- title: Democrats Have a Plan to End the Government Shutdown and Blame Trump description: House Democrats will use their newfound power to try to reopen the government on Thursday. But they still need President Trump to sign off. canonical: https://time.com/5490904/democrats-shutdown-plan-trump/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-31T20:30:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T15:49:50.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Democrats Have a Plan to End the Government Shutdown and Blame Trump og:description: 'This isn’t that hard: All Senate Republicans have to do is pass legislation they have already supported' og:url: https://time.com/5490904/democrats-shutdown-plan-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta22a5a52f2d2899f/69894270457a523108d603bb/Nancy-Pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-politics-CONGRESS-PELOSI og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Democrats Have a Plan to End the Government Shutdown and Blame Trump twitter:description: 'This isn’t that hard: All Senate Republicans have to do is pass legislation they have already supported' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta22a5a52f2d2899f/69894270457a523108d603bb/Nancy-Pelosi.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Democrats' Plan on Day 1 Is to Make Sure Trump Keeps the Blame for the Shutdown > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ef7c0bde-667f-482e-9681-d9e4fb74588d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sen. Lindsey Graham Proposes Incentives for Democrats to Approve Wall Funding, End Shutdown [Watch (HLS stream): Sen. Lindsey Graham Proposes Incentives for Democrats to Approve Wall Funding, End Shutdown](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/B1CDt2sX.m3u8) (0:45)  _Published 2018-12-30. Sen. Lindsey Graham Proposes Incentives for Democrats to Approve Wall Funding, End Shutdown_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 3:49 PM UTCPublished: Dec 31, 2018 8:30 PM UTC Sen. Lindsey Graham Proposes Incentives for Democrats to Approve Wall Funding, End Shutdown  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 3:49 PM UTCPublished: Dec 31, 2018 8:30 PM UTC Democrats have a plan to end the [partial shutdown](http://time.com/5489463/government-shutdown-likely-continue-new-year/) on Thursday – the first day that they take control of the House of Representatives. And if it fails, they want to make sure everyone knows it’s on [President Donald Trump.](http://time.com/5490893/donald-trump-concrete-border-wall/) House Speaker-Designate Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that on Thursday, the House would vote on a series of measures that would reopen the government. There are seven outstanding appropriations bills: the series of measures the House Democrats are proposing would fund six for a year, and extend funding for the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8\. The bills have all passed Senate committees on a bipartisan basis. They would vote separately on the funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been the sticking point that produced the shutdown. That bill would fund Homeland Security through Feb. 8 at current levels, which does not include money for a border wall. This latter part is similar to what the Senate passed unanimously earlier in December, before the House rejected it to fund Trump’s [border wall](http://time.com/5487763/trump-border-wall-less-money/). “While President Trump drags the nation into Week Two of the Trump Shutdown and sits in the White House and tweets, without offering any plan that can pass both chambers of Congress, Democrats are taking action to lead our country out of this mess,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement. “This legislation reopens government services, ensures workers get the paychecks they’ve earned and restores certainty to the lives of the American people.” The plan is unlikely to go anywhere unless Trump concedes he will not get his border wall imminently. With this measure, Democrats are explicitly trying to ensuring that the buck for the government shutdown stops with Trump and Senate Republicans. “This isn’t that hard: All Senate Republicans have to do is pass legislation they have already supported on a bipartisan basis,” said one House Democratic aide. “They can either vote for their own bills and reopen the government or block them and continue the shutdown.” “If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans refuse to support the first bill, then they are complicit with President Trump in continuing the Trump shutdown and in holding the health and safety of the American people and workers’ paychecks hostage over the wall,” Schumer and Pelosi said in their statement. “It would be the height of irresponsibility and political cynicism for Senate Republicans to now reject the same legislation they have already supported.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office could not provide any predictions about how the Senate would proceed on the legislation, but said that the Senate would not deliver anything to the President that he would not sign. If the President continues to insist on $5 billion for the wall, the House Democrats’ plan would fall into that category.The government has been partially shut down since midnight on Dec. 22, with the government locked in a [standoff](http://time.com/5486082/donald-trump-shutdown-math/) over Trump’s wall demand. He says he will reject any spending package that lacks it, but the Senate Republicans do not have the votes to deliver that legislation to him. They need 60 votes to accomplish that objective, which would require some Democratic support. “Our negotiations are at an impasse at the moment. I wish it were not so,” Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, who chairs the Appropriations Committee that is responsible for the funding, [said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-sen-richard-shelby-on-face-the-nation-december-30-2018/) “But we’ve got to move away from the blame game.” Democrats are clearly not heeding Shelby’s advice. By moving to re-open the government on their terms, they are instead trying to ensure the blame stayed on Trump. The bills the Democrats will propose are expected to pass the House easily, given that Democrats will have a majority of 40 seats. But in order for the government to re-open, they will also need to pass both the Republican-controlled White House and Senate. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, on Monday morning Trump tweeted repeatedly about the wall. Including saying: “Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1079763419908243456) Trump initially said he would take responsibility for shutting down the government over the border wall – but has since tried to shift blame to Democrats. ## Transcript [00:00] I've been working on this for ten years. Democrats [00:02] have voted for 700 miles of secure fencing in 2006. [00:06] They voted for 25 billion for the wall in February. In [00:10] 2013, we voted for $ 42 [00:14] billion for border security including $ 9 billion for a [00:17] wall slash Fence. The bottom line is, [00:22] they want Trump to lose more than they want the [00:24] country to win. I fear, at the end of the day there's a [00:27] deal to be had, but everybody's changing their position [00:30] here. And most Americans are pretty tired of it. So, to [00:34] my Democratic friends, there'll never be a deal without [00:36] wall funding, and many Republicans are going to offer [00:40] something As an incentive to vote for wall funding that [00:43] you have supported in the past. 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