Trump wall hits roadblock
CONGRESSIONAL negotiators yesterday inched towards agreement on a bill that would deny President Donald Trump’s request for immediate funds to build a wall along the Mexico border.
The proposed bill would increase the defence budget and eliminate the threat of a government shutdown on Trump’s 100th day in office this Saturday.
Democrat senator Chuck Schumer said Republican negotiators were following the lead of Mr Trump, who has signalled that he would not insist on $US1 billion ($1.33 billion) worth of wall funding now as an addition to the $US1 trillion-plus spending bill.
Mr Trump told a gathering of conservative media reporters on Monday that he might be willing to wait until September for the funding.
A temporary funding bill expires at midnight on Friday and all sides anticipated that another stopgap measure would be required to buy time for the House and Senate to process the massive spending bill, which would wrap together 11 unfinished agency spending bills through September.
Mr Trump campaigned throughout the country last year on a pledge to build a wall across the entire southern border, promising that Mexico would pay for it.
The wall is a priority of Mr Trump’s most fervent supporters, but it is resolutely opposed by Democrats and even many Republicans, who see it as wasteful and who prefer other steps such as new technologies and more border agents to curb illegal immigration.
“I support additional border security funding,” said Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a critic of Mr Trump who dined with the President at the White House on Monday. “But a 2200-mile (3500kilometre) wall, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of support for it.”
Mr Trump vowed to fight for the wall. “The wall is going to get built,” he said at the White House. Asked when, he said, “Soon.”
Democrats vowed not to give up, either, and look forward to the fight. “It’s not a negotiation,” Senator Schumer said. “No wall.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump appeared poised to procure about $US15 billion to boost the military. Democrats said they were satisfied with the emerging outlines of the proposed legislation.
Several issues remain unresolved. Democrats were pushing to extend health benefits for 22,000 retired Appalachian coal miners and their families whose medical coverage is set to expire at the end of this month.
Another potential stumbling block involved a recent threat by Mr Trump to scuttle a portion of former president Barack Obama’s health law that helps low-income people afford insurance policies.