Budget, border dominate as Trump nears 100 days
President demands money for wall as spending bill deadline nears but hints he wants to avoid shutdown
WASHINGTON — Congress returned from a two-week Easter recess Monday with a potential government shutdown looming over a budget impasse, but White House officials signaled that President Donald Trump is eager to strike a deal to keep government operating.
The federal government will run out of money Saturday — Trump’s 100th day in office — unless lawmakers pass legislation to pay for agencies to stay open. The White House and Congress hope to reach agreement on a bill this week to keep the government running through Sept. 30, the end of the 2017 budget year.
In recent days, Trump administration officials have demanded that lawmakers include money for construction of a security wall along the Mexican border in the bill to finance government operations.
It has emerged as the biggest stumbling block to a budget agreement.
A White House official told the Journal and other regional news outlets at a briefing on Monday that Trump is committed to border security generally but seemed to back away from any hard-line demands that the wall be included in the eleventh-hour spending bill.
“Negotiations (with lawmakers on Capitol Hill) are ongoing,” the official said. “We need to make sure that the government continues to do its job, stays open. The president makes clear that is his priority and it’s something we have emphasized in those negotiations.”
The proposal to build the wall is unpopular with congressional Democrats and even some Republicans, including Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico.
The administration official, who declined to be identified, said that border security is one of the president’s priorities but that there are many facets to the objective, not just construction of a wall along the border.
Asked by the Journal what the White House would say to those members of Congress who contend that a border wall wouldn’t be effective in stemming illegal immigration, a White House official replied: “I would say wait and see.”
Although Trump promised some accomplishments during his first 100 days in office (some have been fulfilled, and some haven’t), on Monday his aides downplayed the traditional benchmark for presidents.
However, they did tout some accomplishments, including withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, pushing ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, and strikes against a Syrian airfield in response to the Syrian government’s attacking its own people with poison gas in the civil war there.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., told the Journal on Monday that during town halls in New Mexico last week he heard the state’s residents fret about “President Trump’s attempt to take health care away from hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans, shut the government down over funding for a border wall we don’t need, and deport immigrants when they seek health care or report crimes.”
“I think the president’s first 100 days have been a disaster for New Mexico and for the country, and I will continue to work to hold him accountable,” Udall said.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it. Since then, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has flatly rejected the notion that Mexico would pay for the wall, and recently Trump has said the U.S. will begin building the wall and make Mexico pay for it later.
“Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,” Trump tweeted over the weekend.
On Twitter, Trump has accused Democrats of allowing drugs and violent gangs to flow into the United States by objecting to the wall.
Trump also plans to outline an ambitious tax cut plan Wednesday, telling The Associated Press last week that it would include a “massive” tax break for both individuals and corporations.
Trump would also like to revive a failed effort by House Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. He also hopes to use the $1 trillion catchall spending bill for a multibillion-dollar down payment on a Pentagon buildup, and perhaps a crackdown on cities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities on enforcement of immigration law.