Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump’s chief: Wall bid lowered
WASHINGTON — A top White House official signaled Sunday that President Donald Trump is willing to accept less money than he’s been demanding to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney withheld specifics but placed the White House counteroffer at between Trump’s $5.7 billion request and the $1.3 billion for border fencing and security that Democrats are offering.
“We moved off of the 5 and we hope they move up from their 1.3,” said Mulvaney, who also runs the White House budget office.
A Democratic aide said the White House offer was for $2.1 billion for border security, including new fencing, plus an additional $400 million fund for other Trump immigration priorities. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
A spokesman for the Office and Management and Budget did not respond to a request to confirm the details of the offer.
Mulvaney said Sunday that he was awaiting a response on the counteroffer from Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York in the long-running dispute that has led to a partial government shutdown. Mulvaney warned that the shutdown caused by the impasse could stretch into January.
“I think it’s a really good question here as to whether or not this deal can be cut before the new Congress comes in” on Jan. 3, Mulvaney said.
Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer, countered in a statement: “If Director Mulvaney says the Trump Shutdown will last into the New Year, believe him, because it’s their shutdown.”
On Twitter, Trump continued to press his case for immediate action, writing that “the only way to stop drugs, gangs, human trafficking, criminal elements and much else from coming into our Country is with a Wall or Barrier.”
But Democrats will assume control of the House on Jan. 3, giving them additional negotiating leverage to oppose a border wall.
“There is frankly no path towards him getting $5 billion in American taxpayer money to meet his campaign promise of a big, beautiful wall with Mexico,” Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on NBC’s Meet the Press that while Democrats in Congress will not agree to a wall, “I can tell you that I think there is an appetite among Democrats to do something sensible at the border.”
Durbin argued for increasing the use of technology along the border instead of building “some medieval wall.”
“It really is in the president’s hands to decide,” Durbin added. “He says it is an issue of border security. I think we know better; it’s an issue of his own political insecurity. When the right-wingers start screaming at him, he just backs off and dissembles in front of us.”
Asked whether he’s willing to increase the price tag as long as the money is not spent on a wall, Durbin responded: “Absolutely.”
Mulvaney, however, said on ABC’s This Week that “the president’s not going to not accept money for a border wall.”
Trump, however, dismissed the idea of a technological solution, tweeting that “drones and all of the rest are wonderful and lots of fun, but it is only a good old fashioned Wall that works!”
Trump’s latest iteration of the wall is a “steel slat barrier,” a description he began using in the past few days as the shutdown deadline loomed.
The $5.7 billion Trump has sought would pay to replace about 115 miles of older fence with taller posts, and expand the border barrier by about 100 miles, homeland security aides said Friday.
A rendering of this version of the wall posted on Twitter hours before the shutdown shows rows of metal bollards with sharp points on top.
Trump ultimately wants $18 billion, enough for about 700 miles of barrier. Some — maybe most — would replace 654 miles of fence built under a 2006 law.
LAWMAKERS DIVIDED
The partial government closure, affecting hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country, was expected to last at least through late this week after the House and Senate, which each met in a rare weekend session, adjourned until Thursday.
Mulvaney and other Republicans said paychecks will go out on Friday, the next federal pay period. “I want everybody to understand no one is working without getting paid,” Mulvaney said.
Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., agreed that everyone would be paid, and he criticized the coverage of the shutdown Sunday as “really much ado about very little.”
“We have a very small sliver of the government that’s unresolved and is in this shutdown mode. It’s a very, very small amount,” Toomey said on Meet the Press, saying the media was taking focus away from “a very, very strong economy and some really good economic news, generally.”
Other Republicans expressed less patience with a shutdown.
The partial shutdown “is
disruptive, harmful, wasteful and could leave hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors without paychecks over Christmas,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “The votes are clearly not present in the Senate to provide $5 billion for the border wall. … We have to accept those realities and reopen the government as soon as possible.”
Today and Tuesday — Christmas Eve and Christmas, respectively — are federal holidays, meaning the federal government would already be closed. Wednesday is the first day the public could begin to feel the effects of a shutdown, Mulvaney said.
The impasse blocked money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice.
Those being furloughed included nearly everyone at NASA and 52,000 workers at the Internal Revenue Service. Many national parks were expected to close.
The Pentagon and the departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services are among those that Congress has fully funded and will operate as usual. Also still functioning were the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard.
Transportation Security Administration officers continue to staff airport checkpoints and air traffic controllers were on the job.
Trump was staying in Washington for Christmas because of the shutdown, the White House said.
Mulvaney acknowledged that Trump’s approach to the presidency played a role in shuttering federal agencies and sending workers home on furlough just before Christmas.
“This is what Washington looks like when you have a president who refuses to sort of go along to get along,” Mulvaney said.
“There is frankly no path towards him getting $5 billion in American taxpayer money to meet his campaign promise of a big, beautiful wall with Mexico.”
— Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville, Alan Fram, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jill Colvin, Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking of The Associated Press; by Erica Werner, David Weigel and Philip Rucker of The Washington Post; by Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times; and by Todd J. Gillman of the Dallas Morning News.