Bipartisan panel closes in on border security deal
Republicans: They won’t get Trump $5.7B for his wall
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators worked toward a deal Wednesday that could increase fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border without delivering President Donald Trump the wall money he wants, as pressure built to reach agreement ahead of a government shutdown deadline next week.
A bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers traded offers behind the scenes, with committee Democrats saying money for border barriers was on the table, and Republicans acknowledging they won’t get Trump the $5.7 billion he has sought for his wall.
Lawmakers hope to have a tentative deal by Friday or soon thereafter, to allow time for it to pass the House and Senate by Feb. 15. That’s when funding runs out for a large portion of the federal government, causing another partial shutdown, if Congress and Trump don’t act first.
Leaders of both parties made clear that, after the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown ended late last month with Trump signing a short-term spending bill that includes no new money for his wall, they want to reach finality soon to avoid another federal funding lapse.
Few are eager to prolong the uncertainty by passing yet another stopgap spending bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., argued in a private meeting with senators Wednesday against passage of another short-term fund- ing bill, according to a Republican with knowledge of the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.
Committee members declined to divulge details of negotiations. But after Democrats started out last week offering no money for physical barriers of any kind at the border, House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. — leading the conference committee negotiations — said Wednesday that “everything is on the table.”
Another committee Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who represents a border district, spoke of enhanced fencing or other types of barriers along portions of the 2,000mile border — as long as local residents and authorities agree, and sensitive areas such as butterfly habitats are protected.
There already are hundreds of miles of walls and fences of various kinds along the border, which lawmakers of both parties have been funding for years. Trump’s $5.7 billion request would build 230 more miles of steel barriers.
Trump’s advisers are hopeful that congressional negotiators can reach a deal, but he has not shown any willingness to back down from his insistence that taxpayer money be used to construct parts of a wall along the Mexico border. The president renewed his demands for a wall in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and is expected to make the case again Monday during a rally in El Paso, Texas.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she thinks House and Senate negotiators could reach a deal by the end of this week if “left to their own devices.” She said that she would be willing to support any compromise border security legislation they produce, and that she has urged the White House to adopt the same “hands-off” posture.
She said she had relayed her hope to Vice President Mike Pence “that the White House will have the same hands-off policy as I have vis-a-vis the appropriators.”
Pence on Wednesday defended Trump’s tactic of shutting down the government and said he could not guarantee that another closure will be averted.
“I never think it’s a mistake to stand up for what you believe in, and I think what the American people admire most about this president is he says what he means and he means what he says in a very real sense,” Pence said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.”