BUDGET DEAL Trump signals support as lawmakers scramble to finish

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers slogged toward completion of a massive spending bill and border security compromise Wednesday, preparing to pass it and send it to President Donald Trump in time to avoid a government shutdown Friday at midnight.

The mood in the Capitol was less of enthusiasm than relief as negotiators finalized legislation that would end, for now, political brinkmanship over Trump’s demands for money for a southern border wall. Those demands produced the nation’s longest partial government shutdown

before it ended late last month after 35 days.

The days of negotiations that followed produced a deal offering Trump less than a quarter of the $5.7 billion he wanted for barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Nevertheless, Trump is

expected to sign the bill — although the president has changed his mind at the last minute before, creating a level of uncertainty.

Lawmakers were aiming to finalize the legislation late Wednesday, and votes were expected in the House and the Senate on Thursday. The bill is

expected to pass. Trump said that he has to see the final deal before deciding whether he can support it, but he reiterated his insistence that regardless of what Congress does, the border wall will get built.

“We will get the job done. The wall is very, very on its way. It’s happening as we speak,” Trump said at an event with law enforcement officials.

“It’s a big wall. It’s a strong wall. It’s a wall that people aren’t going through very easy,” Trump said. “They would be able to climb Mount Everest easier.”

Despite Trump’s claims, the government has not completed any new sections of wall under his administration.

Earlier, addressing reporters at the White House, Trump repeated his suggestion that he will be taking some type of executive action to get additional money for the wall, saying, “We have options that most people don’t understand.” Republicans widely expect the president to try to move money from existing accounts, including one or more within the Pentagon budget, to add to the border barrier money appropriated by Congress, although Democrats say they will challenge such efforts.

Trump also said: “I don’t want to see a shutdown. A shutdown would be a terrible thing.”

Lawmakers grappled with a series of last-minute disputes Wednesday as they sought to finalize the deal, including an ultimately unsuccessful push by Democrats to include back pay for thousands of federal contractors who were caught up in the last shutdown, and — unlike the 800,000 affected federal workers — have not been able to recoup their lost wages.

The overall compromise, struck by a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Congress’ spending committees, includes $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new fences along the border in Texas, compared with $5.7 billion Trump had sought for 234 miles of steel walls. It contains language Democratic negotiators say should limit detention capacity by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, although Republicans insist ICE will be able to maintain and even increase existing detention levels, and some liberals said Wednesday they oppose the legislation for that reason.

According to a document outlining some details of the deal, viewed by the Washington Post, the bill will provide $49.4 billion for the Homeland Security Department for the 2019 budget year, an increase of $1.7 billion above 2018 levels. The legislation also includes policy provisions specifying that members of Congress cannot be barred from accessing any facility housing children, and it contains language aimed at making it easier for separated children to reunite with family members in the U.S.

Combined spending on ICE and the Customs and Border Protection agency is around $23 billion, a figure Trump has begun touting to praise the legislation’s spending on border security.

The legislation wraps up Homeland Security spending with six other uncompleted appropriations bills for 2019, funding nine Cabinet departments and dozens of other agencies for a total price tag of around $324 billion. The other agencies covered include Commerce, Agriculture, Housing, State and the IRS, all of which would be funded through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, presuming Trump signs the legislation. At that point, another fight over government funding — and, perhaps, the wall — will await.

Few lawmakers, even those who helped write it, had effusive praise for the package Wednesday. Instead, supporters described it as the best deal that could be achieved under the circumstances, and better than the alternatives: another government shutdown or a “continuing resolution” that would extend existing funding levels. House Democrats, in particular, argued against a continuing resolution because that approach would perpetuate spending agreements struck when Republicans controlled the House.

“We’re not asking anybody to hold their nose, and we’re not asking anybody to vote against their district,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., one of the negotiators. “I think what we’re asking them to do is to weigh the competing interests of what’s in this bill versus also what would happen if this bill didn’t move forward and you had a continuing resolution. That’s not ideal either for our values.”