Republicans and Democrats aren’t budging in their fight over how much money to spend on President Trump’s border wall, which is increasing the chances of a stalemate that leads to a partial government shutdown next month.
President Trump has drawn a red line on the wall, telling GOP appropriators and leaders he wants $5 billion included in final fiscal year 2019 spending bill. The Homeland Security spending bill is where Republicans would like to include that money, and that bill needs to be passed by Dec. 7 to avert a partial government closure.
But Senate Democrats say they want to stick to the $1.6 billion Senate lawmakers agreed to earlier this year.
Neither side is backing down and President Trump is threatening to use his veto pen if the spending legislation doesn’t provide his requested wall funding.
“He’s said to us he won’t sign a spending bill at $1.6 billion,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told the Washington Examiner.
Democrats said Tuesday they aren’t interested in a compromise figure.
“The $1.6 billion in border security agreed to by Democrats and Republicans is our position,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. “We believe that is the right way to go.”
Asked if he’d negotiate higher than the $1.6 billion, Schumer said, “We are not negotiating in the press. This is our position.” Schumer also warned a government shutdown over the wall funding “is on President Trump’s back.”
Some Republicans are floating the idea of spreading the $5 billion over two years, which would make the spending amount more palatable to Democrats. But Democrats are also rejecting that idea so far.
“We’ve already put together our proposal,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said, rejecting the idea of a two-year funding deal.
With no deal in sight, Republicans are already considering whether to split off the Homeland Security spending bill and passing the six other bills that don’t relate to border wall funding. The idea is to pass those bills, and then leave the contentious Homeland Security bill for last.
“We’ll work out the others,” Shelby said.
