Lawmakers filed a broad border security spending bill early Thursday that is expected to clear Congress by the end of the day.
The measure, which funds nine departments and dozens of agencies until the end of fiscal 2019, is expected to be signed by President Trump and will thus avert a second partial government shutdown that threatened to occur after Friday.
“We cannot repeat the disastrous government shutdown, so it is incumbent on Congress to come together to responsibly fund our government. This legislation represents a bipartisan compromise and will keep our government open while funding key priorities,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said.
The bill sticks to an agreement struck by negotiators on Monday to provide $1.375 for structural barriers along 55 miles of the southern border and to reduce by year’s end the number of beds needed to detain illegal immigrants. It’s far below the $5.7 billion requested by Trump, Democrats touted.
But the measure leaves out last-minute additions Democrats were seeking.
Negotiators rejected a move by a group of Democrats to include pay for federal contractors who worked during the 35-day shutdown that ended earlier this month, which President Trump did not support. The deal also does not extend the Violence Against Women Act, which Democrats had also tried to include.
But the bill includes nearly $450 million Democrats sought to provide services and support for illegal immigrants such as “enhanced medical support, transportation, food and clothing” and the revival of an Obama-era program that would allow illegal immigrants to be monitored rather than held in detention.
Overall, the measure provides more than $22 billion in new border security funding, which includes $615 million for equipment needed to increase security at ports of entry and funding for hiring 600 new customs officers.
“This legislation makes a significant down payment on the border wall and provides a bipartisan path forward to complete the remaining FY19 spending bills,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this package so we can demonstrate to the American people that we are here to work together and do our jobs.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure as early as Thursday afternoon. The House will clear it later in the evening, a Democratic aide said.
Overall the bill funds nine departments and dozens of agencies making up one quarter of all federal spending.
The funding measure has been stuck in a partisan impasse since last December, when Trump announced he would not sign another spending bill unless it included money for a southern border wall.
The measure Congress is poised to pass Thursday allows Trump to use any barrier design already deployed along the southern border. That includes the steel-slat fence Trump now favors. Shelby spoke to Trump Wednesday evening, he said, and appeared to assure him Republicans would continue to seek wall funding in subsequent spending bills.
“I just talked to the President, and he was in good spirits,” Shelby said on Twitter. “I told him that I just signed the homeland security conference report and that it’s a down payment on his border wall. This is only the beginning of a multi-year effort.”
