President Donald Trump says he’s “unhappy” with a hard-won agreement to prevent a new government shutdown and finance construction of more barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t sign it. (Feb. 12)
AP
WASHINGTON – A bill that will provide some funding for a physical barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border appears likely to clear Congress as lawmakers rush to beat a midnight Friday deadline and avoid another government shutdown.
The Senate is expected to vote Thursday to approve the measure, which offers $1.375 billion for a border barrier – much less than the $5.7 billion that President Donald Trump has demanded for a wall along the southern border.
The House is likely to pass the bill later Thursday evening and send the measure to Trump, who has signaled – but not said outright – that he would sign it into law.
Trump assured a group of local law-enforcement officers on Wednesday that, one way or another, he intends to build a wall and said he wants one that would be harder to climb than the world’s tallest mountain.
“It’s a big wall, it’s a strong wall,” Trump said. “They would be able to climb Mt. Everest a lot easier, I think.”
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AP
Trump’s demand for a border wall – a signature promise of his presidential campaign – was at the center of a budget standoff that triggered a record 35-day government shutdown late last year. The shutdown ended in late January, when lawmakers passed a temporary funding bill to buy them time to work out an agreement on border security.
On Monday, a bipartisan group of budget negotiators from the House and Senate announced an agreement “in principle” that, among other things, includes $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new border barriers. The agreement would place restrictions on how the money can be spent, chiefly that it could pay only for “bollard wall” style barriers.
Trump has suggested he could get the rest of the money for a wall by declaring some sort of a “national emergency” – allowing him, in theory, to use defense money for wall construction, but also inviting legal challenges from opponents who say the president lacks the legal authority to declare an emergency in this case.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and other officials also have suggested another option: moving existing money from other accounts to fund walls, fences or other sorts of barriers.
Lawmakers must pass – and Trump must sign – the new border security measure by midnight Friday or government funding will lapse, triggering another shutdown.
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More: Lawmakers don’t want any more government shutdowns; they just can’t agree on how to prevent them
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