Updated at 8:00 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- As a divisive stopgap spending bill arrived in the U.S. Senate on Friday, Georgia's junior senator David Perdue headed to the White House.
The Republican joined party leaders in a morning meeting with President Donald Trump, during which he told his close ally to stand firm against Senate Democrats, who have vowed to oppose any legislation that included money for a wall on the southern border.
“This is about protecting America, stopping illegal drugs, stopping human trafficking and protecting the sovereignty of the country,” Perdue said after the confab. "My encouragement was this is the time to do it."
Within two hours, Perdue was back in the U.S. Capitol voting to begin debate on the seven-week stopgap, a version of which must be passed to avert a government shutdown on Friday evening. House GOP leaders successfully added $5 billion in wall funding and roughly $8 billion for natural disaster relief – a top priority for Georgia lawmakers after Hurricane Michael – late yesterday.
Senate leaders left the vote open for hours as they waited for enough support to proceed. The vote squeaked through hours later, but it did not appear to be enough to stave off the third government shutdown this year.
Perdue spent much of the afternoon on the phone seeking to jump-start discussions between the White House and key senators, an aide said. He and colleague Cory Gardner urged Trump to send Vice President Mike Pence, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and adviser Jared Kushner to Capitol Hill to personally negotiate with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after it became clear discussions had ground to a halt with GOP leaders.
Earlier in the day, Perdue said Schumer would be blamed for a Christmastime shutdown, not Trump, who had said last week he would be “proud” to shutter the government over border security.
"If this doesn't pass ... then the Democrats are sending a message to America that they don't care about border security,” said Perdue.
Schumer previously said Trump was throwing a “temper tantrum” over wall funding and that Democrats would stand firmly against it.
“A Trump shutdown will not convince a single Democrat to support bilking the American taxpayer for an ineffective, unnecessary and exorbitantly expensive wall," the New York Democrat said Thursday.
Missing from Friday’s action was Perdue’s Georgia colleague Johnny Isakson.
The Republican’s office said he had cataract surgery on Thursday and was forced to miss Friday’s vote for a follow-up appointment. He is “awaiting guidance from leadership regarding next steps,” a spokeswoman said.
Many senators had left town Wednesday after approving a pared-down version of the stopgap without border wall or disaster funding, thinking Trump would sign off on the plan. But the president changed his mind Thursday morning after being excoriated by conservative media.
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