President Donald Trump plans on signing a bill to fund the federal government, averting another shut down that would take effect Friday night.
At the same time, Mr. Trump will also declare a national state of emergency to secure funding through other means for a wall along the U.S./Mexico border, whose aim is to protect the country from illegal immigrants. The border wall is projected to cost $5.7 billion.
The announcement was made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday afternoon. “He’s prepared to sign the bill,” Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor, after a conversation with the president. “He will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time.”
Previous reports stated that the Trump administration considered redirecting money from disaster areas to fund the border wall. Among the areas that stand to lose federal dollars is the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was walloped by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump was leaning towards signing the bill and painted the just over $1 billion included for border security in it as progress. But pressure from the right, which saw Mr. Trump’s stance as weak, caused his unwilling embrace of the measure to give way to another, more acceptable position: declaring a state of emergency. The move is expected to be swiftly challenged by Democrats, who contend that Congress should control the purse strings of the government, not the White House.
The House is set to vote Thursday evening on the $333 billion package of seven spending bills, according to The Wall Street Journal. The agreement includes controversial funding for the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the border with Mexico, and whose budget triggered a five-week shutdown that ended last month.
“We cannot repeat the disastrous government shutdown, so it is incumbent on Congress to come together to responsibly fund our government,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), who led the 17-lawmaker group that struck the agreement. “This legislation represents a bipartisan compromise and will keep our government open while funding key priorities.”
Democrats, who control the House, celebrated the measure as a win against Mr. Trump’s agenda. They highlighted that the new physical barriers will be largely fencing and levee wall, not concrete wall. And they pointed to other funding in the spending package for Democratic priorities, including affordable housing, census outreach and a 1.9% pay raise for federal civilian workers.
Republicans on the other hand scuffed at the deal. “The American people should be outraged when they learn about the border security provisions of this deal,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.) “Instead of President Trump’s requested amount of $5.7 billion for the wall—as opposed to the $25 billion he really needs—conferees will provide less than $2 billion,” he said, referring to the 17 lawmakers who reached the agreement. On Wednesday, Mr. Biggs introduced a one-week spending bill he urged House leaders to pass while continuing to negotiate, according to The Journal.
One thing was clear, however: lawmakers, who had spent hours of painstaking work to reach a compromise, would not reopen negotiations — not even if sought by the president.
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
