House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday his goal in the border security negotiations starting this week is to get an agreement on a new border barrier, and said he doesn’t care what anyone calls it.
“I’m looking for safety and security over semantics,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said when asked on Fox News whether the talks would result in a border wall or a border fence.
“I don’t care what they call it, but it has to be a barrier,” he said.
McCarthy spoke just hours before Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate were set to meet in a conference committee to start work on a border security deal. The committee was set up as part of an agreement last week that saw President Trump sign legislation to reopen the partially closed government.
Trump is hoping lawmakers can find a way to agree to the $5.7 billion to fund the construction of border wall, but he’s likely to get less than that. He might also be stuck with a deal allowing the construction of border fencing in some areas, instead of a concrete or a steel slat wall.
Lawmakers will first have to agree to some kind of barrier before they start arguing over what to call that barrier. McCarthy said Republicans would be pressuring Democrats to negotiate in good faith, which they said they would do once the government is reopened.
“It’s really going to be on the Democrats who made this promise, today at 1:30 p.m.,” he said. “When they walk in that room, if they have the same language, that is wrong.”
