White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Democrats will take the fall if the government shuts down next week.

She said the White House and Senate Republicans are still working to pass a clean short-term spending bill to keep the government open after Oct. 1, when current-year funding runs out.

“That’s all we’re advocating for, a simple, clean budget extension,” Ms. Leavitt said at a press briefing. “A straightforward, responsible solution to keep the government open to Nov. 21 and allow the full year appropriations process to move forward.”

She noted the stopgap spending bill, which passed the House last week, is nearly identical to the one Congress approved six months ago.

“Unfortunately, all of a sudden, now they want to shut down the government. And if the government is shut down, it’s only going to be the fault of the Democrats,” she said.

Ms. Leavitt also called out Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for having been previously hard-core opponents of government shutdowns.

“Democrat Chuck Schumer himself said, ’A shutdown would mean chaos and pain and needless heartache for the American people,’ [and] Hakeem Jeffries also said, ’It’s about the harm. Families will be hurt if there is a government shutdown, farmers will be hurt. Holiday travel will be impacted.’”

Senate Democrats shot down the first vote on the House-passed stopgap bill on Friday, and Republicans also defeated the Democrats’ alternative stopgap.

On Saturday, Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries wrote a letter to President Trump demanding negotiations to include Democratic priorities, namely the extension of a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare that is set to expire this year.

Their letter blamed Mr. Trump for his “decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the health care of the American people.”

“At your direction, Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly and publicly refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations to keep the government open,” they wrote. “Notwithstanding the fact that the partisan Republican spending bill has been defeated, the GOP majorities in the House and Senate have skipped town and abdicated their responsibility to fund the government.”

The House and Senate are on recess this week for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. The Senate returns next week, but the House is not scheduled back until after the Oct. 1 deadline to avoid a shutdown.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.