BORDER WALL MEETING FUELS OPTIMISM
Trump “very reasonable” in Oval Office session with a top Republican
President Donald Trump may be taking a more positive view on negotiations over border security, according to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who met with Trump at the White House on Thursday.
WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump appears to be taking a more positive view of Capitol Hill talks on border security, according to negotiators who struck a distinctly optimistic tone after a White House meeting with a top Republican on the broad parameters of a potential bipartisan agreement.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama said Thursday’s session in the Oval Office was “the most positive meeting I’ve had in a long time” and that Trump was “very reasonable.”
And down Pennsylvania Avenue at the Capitol, the mood among negotiators was distinctly upbeat, with participants in the talks between the Democratic-controlled House and GOP-held Senate predicting a deal could come as early as this weekend.
There is a Feb. 15 deadline to enact the measure or a stopgap spending bill to avert another partial federal government shutdown that neither side wants to reprise. Trump and fellow Republicans are especially eager to avoid another shutdown after they got scalded by the last one.
Trump had previously called the negotiations a “waste of time,” and he has threatened to declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. But Shelby said Trump during their meeting “urged me to get to yes” on an agreement.
Publicly on Thursday, Trump took a wait-and-see approach.
“I certainly hear that they are working on something, and both sides are moving along,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. We need border security. We have to have it; it’s not an option. Let’s see what happens.”
The White House is committed to letting the negotiations play out, with some saying they are “cautiously optimistic” about getting a deal they could live with, said a senior administration official who lacked authorization to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Beyond the border security negotiations, the measure is likely to contain seven appropriations bills funding domestic agencies and the foreign aid budget, as well as disaster aid for victims of last year’s hurricanes and Western wildfires.
“I’m hopeful,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I do like the idea of getting all of last year’s work finished, and I hope that’s where it ends up.”
Any move by Trump to fund a border barrier by executive fiat, however, would roil many Republicans on Capitol Hill, raising the likelihood that the House and Senate could pass legislation to reverse him.