Will President Trump Settle for Border Wall Funding at a Later Date?
Days away from a potential government shutdown, President Trump and Republican Congressional leaders are at odds on funding the President’s wall.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer said April 24, however, that the work by Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and others has been “very positive” and a shutdown is unlikely.
“They are currently negotiating. We feel very confident that they understand the President’s priorities and will come to an agreement by the end of Friday,” Spicer said during the daily press briefing.
And President Trump appears to be backing down on his demand for immediate funding, insisting instead on its inclusion in the 2018 budget this fall.
The Trump administration initially demanded that Congress include more than $1 billion in funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall in the spending bill to keep the government open past midnight Friday, April 28.
Yet GOP leaders, worried their party will be blamed for a shutdown and realizing they’ll need votes from Democrats to get a stopgap measure to Trump’s desk, said funds for the wall should be dealt with in a supplemental spending bill or as part of next year’s appropriations process, reports The Hill.
In an effort to compromise, OMB Director Mulvaney, a former conservative GOP lawmaker, said Republicans could provide the funding needed for ObamaCare if Democrats approve funding for a down payment on the wall. Democrats refused the deal.
“Trump is putting congressional Republicans in a difficult situation because he’s demanding things that are going to be very hard for them to deliver,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution.
“He wants money to build the border wall. ... He could risk a government shutdown just over that issue,” he added. “Public opinion is not on his side either in the sense that large numbers of people don’t see that as a high priority.”
Even if timing for the finding may have shifted, Trump made it clear in a tweet Tuesday morning that he is still determined to build the wall.
