Republican leaders who sat down with President Trump this week say he has agreed not to push for full wall funding in the fiscal 2019 spending plan.
“The president is willing to be patient,” Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said a day after the meeting.
President Trump wants Congress to add to the $1.6 billion he has requested for border wall funding in his fiscal 2019 budget proposal.
The House has fulfilled his wish by including $5 billion for a Southern border wall and additional funding for border security that aims to achieve “100 percent scanning” of the border within five years. The Homeland Security spending measure would fund more than 200 miles of “new physical barrier construction” along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Senate’s bill does not include any additional money beyond the president’s $1.6 billion request, and lawmakers in the upper chamber warn that adding more money could jeopardize passage because at least ten Democrats are needed to pass the legislation thanks to the filibuster rule.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairman who oversees the Homeland Security spending, said she backs the House plan to increase wall funding to $5 billion and believes the Senate can add to its wall funding proposal. But Republican leaders are cautious about it.
“Whether we have sufficient votes here to get that done remains to be seen,” warned Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Ryan would not specify what level of spending Trump is willing to accept. Trump in January called for $25 billion overall to complete construction of the wall, which was a central campaign promise in 2016.
Ryan suggested Trump and GOP leaders agreed the priority is passing as many spending bills as possible before the Sept. 30 fiscal year deadline.
“As far as wall funding is concerned… It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when and the president is willing to be patient so we can get that done because it is really important,” Ryan said.
Republican leaders say they don’t know ultimately how much more money Congress may end up including to fund the wall, but they agree with Ryan that they don’t want wall funding to cause spending gridlock by prompting Democrats to oppose spending legislation and lead to a threat of government funding expiring.
“In the past, Democrats have used that as a reason to scuttle the whole spending [process],” Cornyn said. “We are basically trying to defer that fight until those other things are taking care of.”
