Trump Invites Congressional Leaders For Talks As Shutdown Continues

Updated at 6:12 p.m. ET

As the partial government shutdown continues into its second week, President Trump has invited a bipartisan group of top lawmakers to the White House for talks, two congressional sources say.

The meeting, described as a "briefing" on "border security," would take place Wednesday, a day before Democrats are set to take over the House, the sources tell NPR's Scott Detrow.

The White House has not responded to questions about the invitation, which was first reported by Politico. But President Trump hinted at the talks in a New Year's Day tweet.

"Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" Trump asked.

Replying to Trump's tweet, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is set to take over as speaker, wrote that the president "has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown."

Trump has insisted on $5.7 billion for a southern border wall, but Democratic congressional leaders have stood firm against the funding.

The House is expected to vote on a funding bill to end the partial government shutdown on Thursday. That's the first day of the new Congress, when Democrats will take control of the chamber and are expected to elect Pelosi as speaker.

According to Pelosi, the legislation will include the full-year appropriations for six of the seven outstanding funding bills. And it would provide stopgap funding until Feb. 8 for the Department of Homeland Security, which is where the fight over border wall funding is contained.

"It is important to note that these bills contain no new wall funding," Pelosi said in a letter Tuesday to Democratic House members.

About 800,000 federal employees are furloughed during the partial shutdown or are working without pay. On Friday, Trump issued an executive order freezing the salary rates for civilian federal workers.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.