WH Briefing Room: Government Shutdown Ends: Senate Deal, Trump’s Syria Meeting, and Supreme Court’s Marriage Ruling Explained

In this episode, Jon Decker breaks down the latest political headlines dominating Washington. The Senate has passed a new spending bill to end the federal government shutdown — what does it mean for federal workers and the economy? Decker also covers President Trump’s unprecedented meeting with Syria’s interim president and the Supreme Court’s landmark decision upholding same-sex marriage rights. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Tuesday, November eleventh.
I'm John Decker. It's day forty two of the federal
government shutdown, and the Senate finally takes steps to end it.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And we're going to be opening up our country Sumata,
which slows, but we'll be opening up our country very quick.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
The President meets behind closed doors with Syria's leader in
an historic meetings.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
A very strong leader.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
He comes from a very tough place, and he's a
tough guy.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
I liked him. I get along with him.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
The President the new president of Syria, and we'll do
everything we can to make Serius successful because that's part
of the Middle East.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And the Supreme Court declines to reconsider its decision on
same sex marriage. But we begin this veteran's day with
the federal government shutdown, which will likely be over by
the end of this week. Late Monday, the Republican led
Senate past a spending package to end the record long
government shutdown. Democrats provided enough votes to move this legislation

(01:04):
across the finish line. The legislation ultimately was approved on
a vote of sixty to forty eight. Democrats joined with
almost every Republican in supporting the bill. Final Senate passage
came just less than twenty four hours after a procedural
vote late Sunday in which those same eight Democrats broke

(01:26):
with their party to advance the bill sixty to forty,
just hitting the sixty vote threshold needed to advance the
bill under the Senate filibuster rule. On the final vote
on Monday night, only a simple majority was needed the
members of the Democratic coalition to vote in favor of
the legislation. This stopgap spending bill included Independent Senator Angus

(01:50):
King of Maine, as well as Democratic Senators Jackie Rosen
and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvan,
Jean Shaheen and Maggie Hassen of New Hampshire. Dick Durbin,
the number two Senate Democrat of Illinois, and Tim Kane
of Virginia. None of those eight Democratic senators are up

(02:14):
for reelection next year, and only one Republican Senator, Ran
Paul of Kentucky, opposed the legislation. So what does this
continuing resolution actually do? It extends funding for the federal
government until January thirtieth, It includes full funding for three
separate departments, the Agriculture Department, Military Construction, and the legislative branch,

(02:42):
and Democrats who backed this bill also secured language in
this CR guaranteeing the reversal of federal layoffs that were
initiated by the Trump administration during the shutdown. Republican leaders
have also promised a vote on extending Enhanced Affordable Care

(03:02):
Act subsidies by the second week in December. In the
Oval Office on Monday, the President was asked if he
approves of the deal that was reached among senators over
the course of the past twenty four hours.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I would say so.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think based on everything I'm hearing, they haven't changed anything,
and we have support from enough Democrats, and we're going
to be opening up our country. Sumada was slows, but
we'll be opening up our country very quickly.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
As part of this deal reached in the Senate, federal
workers who received reduction enforced notices layoff notices will be
higher back, and the President was asked if he will
abide by that portion of the deal.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
We'll be abided by the deal. The deal is very good.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
We're not going to be giving one and a half
trillion dollars to people that came in from jails and
from the gangs and drug dealers and all of these
others that they wanted to be given healthcare, which would
have heard our healthcare system. I hope that we're going
to be able to have a healthcare where Lindsey and
I were discussing it, Kim and I were discussing a Katie.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
We discussed it.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
We want a healthcare system where we paid the money
to the people instead of the insurance companies.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
And I tell you we're going to be working on
that very hard.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
That continuing resolution now moves over to the Republican controlled
House of Representatives for a final vote as soon as
this Wednesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans on
Monday that he's hoping to have the chamber vote on
that bill as soon as Wednesday, and the Republican leader
also encouraged members to make preparations to return to Capitol

(04:36):
Hill because of concerns about substantial travel disruptions, including canceled
or delayed flights because of the lack of air traffic
controllers at airports all across the country. When those House
members return to Washington. It will come more than fifty
days after the House Speaker Mike Johnson essentially shut the

(04:59):
House down, with the chamber taking its last vote in
mid September. September nineteenth, House Republicans are expected to back
this continuing resolution largely along party lines, and once that happens,
it will be sent to President Trump's desk for his signature.
In the aftermath of this legislation passing out of the Senate,

(05:22):
much of the blame for passage, at least among progressive Democrats,
is being focused on the Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer.
Those progressives complain that he was too weak to keep
his caucus united long enough to force Republicans to extend
those Enhanced Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies, and that,

(05:46):
of course, was essential demand by Democrats in the fight
that led to this government shutdown. Now, besides progressive groups,
you also had about a half dozen House Democrats saying
on Monday that they want the Democratic leader in the
Senate to step aside. Representative ro Kana He's a Democrat

(06:06):
from California. He said the deal to end the shutdown
was what he called the last straw for Democrats who
have grown frustrated with Schumer's leadership, and as Senate Democrats
headed into final votes on Monday, many Senate Democrats declined
to answer questions about Schumer's leadership. Now there are defenders

(06:29):
for Chuck Schumer. His allies say he did the best
he could with a very bad hand. They point out
that few Republicans had expected Senate Democrats to hold out
as long as they did about forty days. And among
his defenders was a fellow New Yorker House Minority Leader,
Hakim Jeffries, who said Schumer should remain in his leadership role,

(06:50):
and he credited Schumer for keeping Democrats largely united over
the past five weeks. It's also important to keep in
mind that Chuck Shum notably voted against this continuing resolution.
He cited the subsidies that are set to expire at
the end of this year. Also on Monday, foreign policy

(07:11):
in the news. At the White House, the President had
an historic meeting with Syria's interim President Akmed Al Sharrah
behind closed doors. That's unusual for President Trump. He frequently
opens up the Oval Office to cameras and reporters when
meeting with foreign leaders. It was the first visit by

(07:31):
a Syrian leader to the White House, and the President
has taken a leading role in backing al Shara's stated
desire to make Syria a friendly country, a country that
is an ally of the United States after decades of war,
of terrorism, and of drug trafficking under the austed regime

(07:54):
of Syrian dictator Basher Asad. The President in the Oval
Office on Monday, see he's optimistic that Syria can succeed.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
We want to see Siri become a country that's very successful,
and I think this leader can do it.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
I really do.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think this leader can do it. And people said
he's at a rough past. We all had rough pasts,
but he has had a rough past, and I.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Think, frankly, if you didn't have a rough pass, you
wouldn't have a change.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
The President's focus on foreign policy over the course of
the past few months has gotten the attention of one
of his biggest allies in the House of Representatives, Congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Green, and she has criticized in the past
few days President Trump for focusing so much attention on
foreign policy, she says, to the detriment of his focus

(08:43):
on domestic policy, and the President in the Oval office
on Monday, was asked about that criticism from Marjorie Taylor Green.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
You know what happened to mandration? A nice woman, but
I don't know what happens. She's lost away, I think.
But I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation,
not locally. I mean, we could have a world that's
on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily
if you had a bad president.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
The President is used to getting praise from Congresswoman Green,
and I think that her criticism to a certain extent
has surprised him. Here's what the President said in response
to a question regarding Congresswoman Green and her criticism that
she's leveled at Republicans over the course of the past
few weeks.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
It's easy to say, oh, don't worry about the world,
but the world is turning.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Out to be our biggest customer.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
The world is the world was on fire, and we
could have been in that fire very easily if you
didn't have a president that knew what he was doing.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
The President, of course, just wrapped up recently a trip
to Asia. There are no more foreign trips planned by
President Trump for the remainder of this year. Finally, on Monday,
the Supreme Court rejected a petition to overturn its landmark
decision from twenty fifteen that gave same sex couples the

(10:02):
constitutional right to marry. The Court, in a brief written order,
turned away an appeal by Kim Davis, a Kentucky County
clerk who was sued by a gay couple whom she
denied a marriage license ten days after the Supreme Court
issued its ruling in Obertfeld versus Hodges. That decision by

(10:24):
the Supreme Court was among its most consequential in decades.
It was a five to four ruling. It was written
by since retired Justice Anthony Davis, and it said the
right to marry is a fundamental liberty that's protected equally
for everyone, including same sex couples, under the constitutional guarantees

(10:45):
of due process and equal protection. But the Supreme Court
rejected this petition. There were no dissents by the Supreme
Court in terms of rejecting this petition coming from Kim Davis,
and as a result, that decision from more than ten
years ago remains the law of the land. It's Veterans Day.

(11:05):
Thank you to all veterans out there for your service.
Thank you for all that you do for our country.
The President at ten thirty five this morning, will depart
the White House en route to Arlington National Cemetery. He
will participate there in a wreath laying ceremony. And that's
it as far as events for the President on this

(11:26):
Veterans Day. That's the White House Briefing Room for Tuesday,
November eleventh. I'm John Decker. Have a good one.