Rep. Peter Welch addresses a Montpelier Rotary Club meeting at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier on Monday. Photo by Kit Norton/VTDigger

As the partial government shutdown entered its third week, Rep. Peter Welch told members of the Rotary Club in Montpelier that there’s a clear plan to fund the government and continue the debate over border security — Republicans just need to get on board.

“The fact is, there’s a way out of this without anybody having to back down,” Welch said. “We were passing the budget that had been agreed to and (Majority Leader) Sen. McConnell has to make a decision as to whether to allow the Senate to vote on it or not.”

In his remarks in Montpelier, Welch said congressional Democrats are ready to pass a budget to end the shutdown and fund the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8, giving Congress more time to debate border security measures without holding up other departments. However, McConnell has said he won’t allow a vote to go forward without support from the president.

“It allows for a cooling off period, and we can sit down and have the discussion about immigration — it shouldn’t just be about the wall,” Welch said. “The wall is a metaphor for border security.”

The partial government shutdown has now stretched to 18 days, since it began on Dec. 22, and it has resulted in 800,000 federal workers being furloughed and 400,000 not receiving pay for their work, according to Welch.

Impacts of the partial government shutdown have not been felt heavily in Vermont, but if the shutdown continues for months, the state may experience impacts on federal programs.

Vermont’s lone park under the purview of the National Park Service — which has been shuttered since federal funding ran out — the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, has closed its visitor center and tours, but this is normal operating practice for the park which only from May to October.

However, the land and nature trails remain accessible and open to the public, as a result of them being stewarded by the Woodstock Inn nordic center, according to Nick Mahood, the Woodstock Inn nordic center director.

The office of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday that it has heard from a number of Vermonters who have been affected by the shutdown.

In a statement, Sanders said if the shutdown continues into February it will start to impact lower income Vermonters, especially those who rely on food stamps, and that in Vermont there are more than 1,300 federal workers who may be going without paychecks.

Sanders also said it would continue to slow down lines at airports as TSA employees continue to go unpaid, and prevent financial assistance from getting to farmers and small business owners.

Trump and Democrats continue to be at an impasse on ending the shutdown, and the president seemed to double down Monday on his demand for additional wall funding to be included in any government funding package.

The president announced he would address the nation from the Oval Office at 9 pm on Tuesday to discuss the southern border.

The White House also said he would travel to the border later in the week as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a wall, the New York Times reported Monday.

Welch — who is not taking a salary during the shutdown — said it’s important to respond to the immigration crisis in the southwestern U.S., but that proper security comes in different forms, including a physical barrier in some areas, but also “virtual walls” and patrols.

“We have to have secure borders, but how you do that depends on what the security experts tell you what you need,” Welch said. “But you have to design the debate in a way where your goal is a constructive outcome as opposed to just a political deadlock.”

Last week, the lower chamber passed funding bills, which are essentially the same as bills that passed in the Senate days before the shutdown began, that would reopen the government without giving Trump the $5.7 billion he has demanded for a border wall.

Though Welch says this funding bill would easily pass the Senate if it was allowed to come to the floor, McConnell has said he won’t allow a vote on a proposal to end the government shutdown without presidential support.

“What Sen. McConnell has defined as his job is very alarming to me,” Welch said. “He has to decide whether he just wants to protect Trump because what he is saying is he won’t let the Senate vote unless Trump says OK. That’s the big question here, will Sen. McConnell allow us to work?”

Last week, Trump asserted he could circumvent Congress to build the wall by declaring a national emergency, which would give the president enhanced powers. Trump again floated the idea of a national emergency declaration on Sunday when speaking to reporters.

In an interview with VTDigger on Sunday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who has been part of negotiations with the White House since the shutdown began, said it is unclear if the president could actually use that strategy.

“We hope that he’s just doing as he often does with his tweets — say one thing and finally do something else because it is hard to see how this falls into the national emergency exception,” Leahy told VTDigger.

On Sunday, Sanders tweeted that Senate Democrats should block consideration of all bills on the Senate floor until the shutdown is ended and the government is reopened.

“It’s time for President Trump to end this shutdown and for Senate Leader McConnell to hold a vote in the Senate to reopen the federal government as soon as possible,” Sanders said in the statement.

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Kit Norton is the general assignment reporter at VTDigger. He is originally from eastern Vermont and graduated from Emerson College in 2017 with a degree in journalism. In 2016, he was a recipient of The...