WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden met with top four congressional leaders on Tuesday to urge them to act quickly to avert a looming government shutdown early next month and approve emergency aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Biden hosted House Majority Leader Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Vice President Kamala Harris was also in attendance.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden invited the leaders to the Oval Office meeting because he wants to ensure U.S. national security interests “come first.” She said those interests include continuing to fund the government.
“Look, what the president wants to see is that we want to make sure that the national security interests of the American people come first, right?” she said on Monday as Biden flew to New York. “It’s not being used as a political football, is it? We want to make sure that happens.
“And we also want to see that, you know, that the government is not shut down,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that keeping the government open and functioning is a “fundamental priority” of Congress.
The Senate’s two top leaders also urged that the government remain open.
Parts of the government could start scaling back activities as early as Friday unless a spending deal is reached and legislation is sent to Biden for signature.
“We want to avoid a government shutdown,” Schumer said in the Senate on Monday. “We want to work with all our counterparts in the House of Representatives to spare the American people the pain that a shutdown would bring.”
McConnell also urged political parties to work together to avoid a “completely avoidable” shutdown.
“Shutting down the government is harmful to the country,” he said in a separate speech on Monday. “And it never produces positive results in terms of policy or politics.”
The House of Representatives is under pressure under Johnson to pass the $95 billion national security package that boosts aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. That measure cleared the Senate for a bipartisan 70-29 vote this month, but Johnson has resisted scheduling it for a vote in the House of Representatives.
Aside from the national security package, government funding for agriculture, transportation, military construction and some veterans services expires Friday. Funding for the rest of the government, including the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, will expire a week later, on March 8.