House Republicans are short of the votes they need to avoid a government shutdown, but Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leaders remain confident they will pass a stopgap funding measure when it comes to the floor on Thursday. 
 
 President Donald Trump is personally leaning on GOP lawmakers to fall into line, especially hard-line conservatives who are opposed to virtually anything Ryan and his leadership team propose. 
 
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 Across the Capitol, Senate Democrats are upset about the House potentially jamming them with a last-minute bill that would do nothing more than avert the worst-case scenario. They’re still smarting over Trump seemingly backing away last week from a bipartisan deal to protect 700,000 Dreamers from deportation. 
 
 Senate Democrats have refused to say whether they would block the funding measure, though Republicans believe Democrats won’t risk a shutdown with control of the chamber in play this fall. 
 
 With government funding set to run out on Friday — and the two sides far apart on an immigration deal — Ryan and senior House Republicans are pushing legislation to keep the government funded until Feb. 16. In a bid to pick up votes from both parties, the measure would also fund a popular children’s health program for six more years and delay the implementation of several Obamacare taxes. 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and fellow Democrats have refused to back the plan. Since Republicans are in the majority, they should pass the short-term funding bill — the fourth since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1 — without Democrats’ help, they say. 
 
 With Democrats on the sidelines, Republicans spent Wednesday leaning on every member for their vote. 
 
 “I think it passes. I don’t think it’s overwhelming, but I think it passes,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said after GOP lawmakers met on Wednesday. 
 
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 Inside the House Republican Conference, there are three main factions of potential “no” votes: defense hawks unhappy over the leadership’s failure to boost Pentagon funding; the Freedom Caucus, the group of conservative hard-liners; and members who are simply unsure what to do. 
 
 House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) — both key players on defense issues — will back the funding bill, according to Turner and a top House Republican. 
 
 “I’m voting for the CR in support of the speaker and his efforts to get a budget deal,” Turner said. 
 
 Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), a defense hawk whose state stands to run out of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program this month, said Wednesday he was “torn” over the bill. 
 
 “It’s a pretty tough vote for me, but it’s really a tough vote for all of us, because I think all of us care about defense and all of us care about” children’s health, Byrne said, suggesting that he will ultimately back the proposal. 
 
 Knowing the vote is close, Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other GOP leaders debated on Wednesday morning whether to add more provisions to the package, such as funding for community health centers. In the end, they decided to move ahead with the package as is, said GOP sources. 
 
 But Freedom Caucus leaders say their group alone has enough disgruntled members to block the bill if Democrats remain opposed. 
 
 The group’s chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), is working to elbow himself into the broader spending and immigration talks. Meadows said his main priority is to make sure Ryan has a plan to end the “stop-and-go” budgeting cycle. 
 
 Noting that Congress has already passed three continuing resolutions, or CRs, to keep the government running, he said, “So how is this CR going to produce a plan that’s different than the last three? Are we just going to hope that Feb. 16 is better than Jan. 19 just because it’s in a different month?” 
 
 Trump has been pressuring Meadows to vote for the funding bill, and GOP leaders hope it will eventually bring Freedom Caucus members around. The White House issued a formal statement in support of the CR package on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 Restless conservatives have been asking Ryan and other senior Republicans for concessions to get them to yes, though it’s unclear whether they’ll get them. Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) said he’s holding out for assurances from GOP leaders that they’ll put a conservative Dreamers bill authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) on the floor. But GOP leaders have resisted, fearing a vote would upset bipartisan immigration talks to shield young immigrants from deportation. 
 
 Other Freedom Caucus members are pushing to attach a yearlong appropriation for the Pentagon. GOP leaders, however, know that will fail in the Senate, so they aren’t entertaining the idea. 
 
 “It’s crisis management at its worst,” Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) complained. “Nobody wants to shut down the government, but if they load this up … they’re going to have a fight on this.” 
 
 House Democrats will refuse to bail out GOP leaders if Republicans can’t put up the votes themselves. 
 
 “My sense is that everybody’s going to be unified on this. We’re not going to have many defections, if any,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.). “We have no bargaining power if we don’t stay unified.” 
 
 When asked whether Democrats would uniformly vote against the bill, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, “We’ll see what they’re going to do, but I think that’s probably the case.” 
 
 During a news conference on Wednesday, Ryan tried to blame Democrats for any problems passing the funding bill, despite the internal GOP schism. 
 
 “Real deadlines are occurring this Friday,” the Wisconsin Republican told reporters. “That is why it is unconscionable to me that they would block funding for our military or cut off funding for these states that really will lose their funding for [children’s health] by playing these political games and tying them to unrelated issues.” 
 
 House Republicans had hoped to gain some Democratic votes by attaching policy sweeteners to the bill, including children’s health funding and delay of the Obamacare taxes. 
 
 But members of the Congressional Black Caucus, whom Republicans had hoped to win over, say they’re still planning to oppose the proposal. 
 
 Many CBC members were livid after Trump called certain African nations “shithole countries” during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House last week. They say the episode strengthened their resolve to withhold votes until Republicans show progress on a bipartisan Dreamers deal. 
 
 Children’s health funding “alone is probably not going to change much,” said one CBC member, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), after the group’s weekly meeting Wednesday. “Why would we want to send a message to 800,000 young people” that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “is not important enough to demand action on it in exchange for our support?” 
 
 Pelosi implored Democrats to vote against the measure during a caucus meeting Wednesday morning. 
 
 “We can’t vote for what they’re putting forth. Not for what’s in it but [for] what’s not in it,” Pelosi told lawmakers, according to an aide in the room. “This is an important moment for our caucus, standing up for what we know is right. … We will not give up our leverage, for our priorities and for our Dreamers.” 
 
 Senate Democrats have not yet taken a formal position on the spending package, waiting to see what happens in the House first. 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted that a number of Democrats “have said they don’t like this deal, … [and if we] kick the can down the road this time, we’ll be back where we started the next time. So there’s very, very strong support not to go along.” 
 
 Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said there was little enthusiasm for the GOP plan during a Democratic policy lunch on Wednesday. “A handful stood up and said, ‘We’re going to vote against the CR.’ Another one or two said not sure. No one stood up and said they had to vote for the CR.” 
 
 Rachael Bade and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report. 
 
 ||||| (CNN) White House chief of staff John Kelly told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that some of President Donald Trump's positions as a candidate on the border wall were "uninformed," sources told CNN. 
 
 Rep. Ruben Gallego confirmed the comment to CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." 
 
 "Yes, we heard him say that," the Arizona Democrat said. 
 
 A source familiar with Kelly's comments in the closed-door meeting with Democrats and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus told CNN that Kelly said he has worked to educate the President and move him away from his campaign promises. 
 
 Another source in the room with access to notes from the meeting told CNN that Kelly was talking about the difference between campaign speech and actual policy, saying, "You make campaign promises but then you learn the reality of governing, which is difficult." 
 
 The wall comments, Kelly said, were just "not fully informed" during the campaign. 
 
 The "uninformed" comment was first reported by The Washington Post. 
 
 No new proposal from White House 
 
 Lawmakers described the meeting as "positive" but also mostly a "rehash" of where both sides stand on stalled immigration talks. 
 
 The packed meeting with Kelly, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and key Hispanic Democrats lasted an hour, and was "cordial," according to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat. 
 
 Kelly did not bring a new proposal from the White House on immigration, Rep. Luis Guiterrez, D-Illinois, said, calling it "unfortunate." 
 
 Democrats have been pushing for a solution for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy , which protected young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children and which President Donald Trump is ending, before they vote for government funding. 
 
 Last week, Trump rejected a bipartisan proposal from senators that would have done so, in a meeting where he used vulgar language to refer to certain countries. 
 
 The infamous "shithole countries" remark didn't come up in Wednesday's meeting, lawmakers said, as the conversation focused on the narrow DACA fix Democrats would like to see and the White House's priorities for a deal. 
 
 "He called the meeting to listen, is how he framed it," Rep. Pete Aguilar of California said of Kelly. 
 
 Hispanic Caucus members said they were surprised Kelly said he was unfamiliar with a bipartisan bill Aguilar worked on with Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd, and Aguilar said White House legislative director Marc Short, who was also in the meeting, has been informed about the bill. 
 
 Kelly said he would look into it. 
 
 "Gen. Kelly indicated that the President is motivated to have a fix," CHC Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham said. "He didn't say he'd sign the bill, but he definitely indicated there would be positive review." 
 
 Gutierrez said he took notes on what Kelly said, quoting Kelly: "If this is the best we can do, the President will sign it." 
 
 Frustration remains 
 
 Still, lawmakers expressed frustration with the lack of progress. 
 
 Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva said the meeting was a "rehash" of old meetings, with the same talking points and positions. 
 
 New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez said it was a "regurgitation" of both sides and the administration is too fixated on the border. 
 
 "We had a cordial conversation but we don't need a cordial conversation, we need a substantive one," he said. 
 
 Part of the group that negotiated the Senate compromise, Menendez said the administration's position on a deal is a "continuously moving" target and "it continuously expands." 
 
 Both men said DACA recipients were being "held hostage" to extract concessions. 
 
 Two emotional moments 
 
 Two moments in the Kelly meeting that were more emotional than the rest of the cordial conversation, a source in the room said. 
 
 At one point, things got a bit tense when Kelly used the term "chain migration" and Rep. Linda Sanchez confronted him, saying that's a term considered offensive and the issue is actually family reunification. 
 
 "Please don't use that term," she said. 
 
 Kelly didn't apologize or discuss it further but took it in, and later in the meeting acknowledged the term is disputed when discussing the issue. 
 
 Apology from Gutierrez 
 
 The source also said Gutierrez took a moment to say, noting he wanted to say it in front of colleagues, that he wanted to acknowledge in the past he got heated and used words he shouldn't have, a reference to past comments he made about Kelly and his military service. Kelly made a joke about having done so as well and it was positive, the source said. 
 
 On the House floor in September, Gutierrez said: "General Kelly, when he was the head of Homeland Security, lied straight to the faces of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about preventing the mass deportation of (DACA recipients). ... General Kelly is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear." 
 
 This story has been updated to included additional developments. ||||| White House chief of staff John Kelly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. Kelly says Trump has evolved on many issues since the campaign. Kelly... (Associated Press) 
 
 White House chief of staff John Kelly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. Kelly says Trump has evolved on many issues since the campaign. Kelly says in an interview with Baier that "there's been an evolutionary process that this president's... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House chief of staff says President Donald Trump's views on immigration are evolving — giving some people hope for a compromise while perplexing others. 
 
 John Kelly's comments come amid a shaky effort to craft an accord protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation — a push the White House and Republicans say they would back if it's coupled with tough border security measures and other restrictions. 
 
 Kelly made the remarks Wednesday at a closed-door meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, participants say, and he made similar remarks later on Fox News Channel. 
 
 Kelly said on Fox that he told the caucus that "they all say things during the course of campaigns that may or may not be fully informed." 
 
 He said Trump has "very definitely changed his attitude" toward protecting the young immigrants, "and even the wall, once we briefed him." 
 
 "So he has evolved in the way he's looked at things," Kelly said. "Campaign to governing are two different things and this president has been very, very flexible in terms of what is within the realms of the possible." 
 
 Kelly's comments were noteworthy because they openly acknowledged the difference between campaign promises and governing, and even suggested that Trump needed to be educated on the subject. They also come as lawmakers struggle to reach a bipartisan deal protecting "Dreamers" — around 800,000 people who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children and could be deported without legal protections. Part of negotiators' problem has been uncertainty over what Trump would accept. 
 
 "He's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Wednesday. "As soon as we figure out what he is for, then I will be convinced that we would not just be spinning our wheels going to this issue on the floor." 
 
 Some lawmakers who met with Kelly Wednesday recalled his remarks differently. 
 
 "He specifically said that there's some areas of the border that didn't needs the wall, and that the president didn't know that when he was making his campaign promises," Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said in a brief interview. 
 
 Another lawmaker, Rep. Luis, Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Kelly told them that "there were statements made about the wall that were not informed statements. In other words, I've informed the president of what it takes to build a wall, so here's how we're going to do it. That's what I understood, and all of that was helpful." 
 
 Many Democrats have said that without an immigration deal in sight, they'll vote against a Republican bill preventing a weekend government shutdown. Congressional passage must come by Friday to prevent an election-year shuttering of federal agencies that could be damaging to both parties. 
 
 During his presidential campaign, Trump made it a mantra to promise to build a "beautiful" wall that would be paid for by Mexico. 
 
 Since then, White House officials have repeatedly said it doesn't have to be a concrete wall from coast to coast but could include large stretches of fencing, technology or other systems. Trump also now wants Congress to provide taxpayer money to finance it. 
 
 One White House official said Wednesday that Kelly's suggestion that Trump's positions had evolved was inartful, and maintained Trump is still committed to his immigration priorities. 
 
 Trump ended the legal shields on "Dreamers" last year and gave Congress until March to renew them. 
 
 Last week, he rejected a compromise by three Democratic and three Republican senators to restore those protections, a deal that included money to begin building the wall and other security steps. Trump's rejection angered the bargainers, and partisan feelings worsened after participants in a White House meeting last week said Trump had referred to African nations as "shitholes." 
 
 Another group of high-level lawmakers has also started talks aimed at brokering an immigration deal, adding an additional level of uncertainty. 
 
 Kelly said on Fox that "there's no doubt in my mind there's going to be a deal" protecting the Dreamers. 
 
 Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said there's "very, very strong" sentiment among Democrats in the chamber to oppose GOP-drafted legislation to keep the government's doors open. 
 
 His comments underscored the problems GOP leaders face in winning congressional passage of that legislation. The bill would keep agencies open until mid-February and finance a popular children's health insurance program for a year. 
 
 Democrats' votes are needed to advance the stopgap measure through the Senate. It's even unclear whether GOP leaders have nailed down enough votes to prevail in the House, where conservatives and strong boosters of the Pentagon have been unhappy. 
 
 Conservative leader Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said he wants GOP leaders to add additional defense money. But he said he was pessimistic leaders would grant other conservative-backed ideas, such as the promise of a vote on a more conservative immigration bill authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller, Kevin Freking and Marcy Gordon contributed to this report.
– After a year in office, President Trump's views on immigration are still "evolving," and some of the promises he made during his campaign were "uninformed," according to White House chief of staff John Kelly. Insiders tell the Washington Post that during a closed-door meeting with Democrats and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Wednesday, Kelly said a physical wall along the entire border with Mexico will never be built and Mexico won't pay for it. Kelly "specifically said that there's some areas of the border that didn't need the wall, and that the president didn't know that when he was making his campaign promise," Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego tells the AP. Kelly told the lawmakers he had helped Trump "evolve" on issues including the wall and DACA. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez tells CNN that the meeting was "cordial," though it was mostly just a "regurgitation" of the positions of both sides. On Fox later Wednesday, Kelly explained his remarks, saying Trump "has evolved in the way he looks at things." He said: "Campaign to governing are two different things, and this president has been very flexible in terms of what’s in the realm of the possible." Kelly added that there is "no doubt" in his mind that a permanent deal to protect around 700,000 people covered by DACA will be reached soon, as long as both sides are willing to talk. Democrats are seeking a deal on DACA before they vote for a bill to avoid a government shutdown. Government funding is set to run out Friday and the two sides are still far apart, Politico notes