Sen. Rand Paul says he proposed a compromise to Democrats to re-open the federal government, but was rejected.
The Kentucky Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he pitched re-opening the government in exchange for allowing Democrats a week of debate on immigration policy.
“It’s gamesmanship and partisanship,” Paul said. “I gave them the answer. Here’s the answer how you solve this today: Promise, guarantee in writing to the Democrats that there will be one week’s debate on immigration and a vote on an immigration bill sometime in the next month in the House and the Senate.”
Paul said the idea was spiked.
“Now when I presented this to those in the Senate, and Senator (Dick) Durbin (D-Illinois), they were like, ‘Oh, no we want guaranteed passage on a must-pass bill.’ And it’s like, well, nobody gets a guaranteed passage,” he said.
The largest point of contention between political parties that led to the government shutdown on Friday night was immigration policy — including the funding for a proposed border wall and the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has protected undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation.
In 2017, President Donald Trump rescinded an executive order that extended DACA. If Congress does not pass a legislative fix for DACA, it will expire later this year.
