Why Is Trump Inviting Senators to Lunch at the Rose Garden?

In the midst of a government shutdown, President Donald Trump has invited Republican senators to have lunch with him at the White House’s newly renovated Rose Garden.

The exact nature of the lunch is not clear, even to some of the senators invited. Republican senators regularly meet for lunch on Tuesdays in the Capitol, but this time it will take place at Trump’s revamped Rose Garden patio—its grass now covered in tile and dubbed the “Rose Garden Club,” with tables and umbrellas to boot.

“I have no idea,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told The Daily Signal when asked what the purpose of it would be.

But there is a growing sense after three weeks of Democrats voting down the short-term continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government that Trump, who has brought to a close some of this Congress’ biggest debates, might have to step in to bring the shutdown to an end.

Democrats have made hefty demands, including undoing the July budget reconciliation bill’s health care reforms and hamstringing the administration’s ability to rescind funding in the future.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kans., who said he was not sure if he would go to the lunch, told The Daily Signal, “Look, he’s the greatest deal maker in the world, so I have a feeling that he’ll have to be involved in closing it.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., asked what could move the needle, said, “He’s the one’s going to move it.”

The newly renovated Rose Garden. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Trump would likely discuss strategies to end the shutdown, but that giving in to Democrats’ demands was off the table.

“I think the unified position of Republicans is we’re not doing anything until the government reopens,” Cornyn said.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters, “Obviously, we’ll talk to him about [the shutdown], and he’ll give us his ideas, and we’ll talk about ours, anything we can do to try to get Democrats to join us and move on this clean CR.”

Of course, Democrats would like nothing more than for Trump to grow tired of the shutdown and grant them a concession.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., told reporters Monday, “It is long past time for the president to take this seriously and to get involved in negotiations.”

Ending the Shutdown—Not Trump’s Problem?

But there are some Republicans in the Senate who altogether reject the idea of Trump having to jump into this congressional dispute, instead arguing that Congress should fix its own mess.

“It’s Congress’s job to pass the budget,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal. “It’s our responsibility. The Democrats should vote to continue this [funding] here. They could have helped us get a budget done, and they didn’t.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., similarly said that Democrats should speak to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., instead of Trump if they want to have their requests heard.

“I think it’s more important for Democrats to sit down with Sen. Thune, because while the president has had his focus on international matters, Sen. Thune has been gearing up for a wide spectrum of options for how to fix health care in a more meaningful and long-term way. So I think Thune’s the right guy,” said Lummis of Democrats seeking talks on health care matters.

The Shrinking Funding Window

Republicans do have to make a major decision—whether or not to put another funding bill on the floor which would extend spending for a longer period.

With each passing day, the utility of the funding extension under consideration—which was meant to buy time for the regular appropriations process—is decreasing. The bill was originally meant to provide seven weeks of funding but would provide just over four weeks now.

Leader Thune himself told reporters Monday that it might be time for the House to come back into session to extend the continuing resolution. The House has been out of town since mid-September.

“Yup, for sure. I mean, every day that passes, we have less time to fund the government,” he said when asked if the House should consider reconvening. “Every week that drags by, it becomes harder and harder to actually have a normal appropriations process, which pushes us into a CR mode, a long-term CR mode. And I just don’t think that’s the way that we ought to be funding the government around here, and every day that passes that becomes more possible as an eventuality.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Hoeven similarly recognized this problem and expressed openness to extending the bill.

“I guess at some point we may have to, right? I mean, look at how long the Democrats have held up us now and cut into that timeline,” said Hoeven. “And really, we want to get back to regular order. I think that’s one of the reasons the Democrats shut it down, is they didn’t. We were back to regular order the way it was supposed to work, and they wanted to throw a kink in the works.”

If the House were to come back into session to extend the bill, it would be a change in direction for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., who has already rejected the idea when asked by the press.

“It would do us no good to pass yet another CR out of the House, because it will meet the same fate. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats want to close the government down. They are gleeful about this,” Johnson said last week.

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