White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday pressured the Senate to come up with a solution for the pending government shutdown, and said the administration would decide what it thinks about the idea once it passes.
“At this point we’re disappointed in the fact they’ve yet to vote and pass something,” Sanders told reporters at the White House Tuesday when asked how a shutdown might be avoided after Friday. “When they do that, we’ll make a determination whether we’re going to sign that.”
Her comment came as the White House continues to battle Democrats over its demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall on the southern border. Democrats have resisted that demand, but Sanders indicated that the $1.6 billion Democrats are willing to provide might be enough if the administration decides it can reprogram unused money already in the government on its own, and spend it on the border wall.
Sanders said White House lawyers are trying to “find out those specific pots of money that can be used for that.”
“The president has asked every one of his Cabinet secretaries to look for funding that can be used to protect our borders and give the president the ability to fulfill his constitutional obligation to protect the American people by having a security border,” Sanders told reporters. “So we’re looking at the other options. In the meantime, we’ll see what the Senate does and let you know when we have an announcement.”
But Sanders indicated that the White House is open to either option — either approval by Congress, or the discovery of unspent funds that could be used.
“We would like to see Congress pass an appropriations bill that fully funds our government and that allows the president to protect our border and provide appropriate border funding,” Sanders said. “We’re also looking at other areas that would allow us to provide and do our constitutional responsibility and the president to carry that out.”
Sanders first hinted Tuesday morning that the White House was considering options outside of Congress to fund the wall. The idea of using unspent money within the government has been talked about in Congress for the last few weeks, but it hasn’t led to a final solution yet.
In a meeting with Democratic leadership in Congress last week, Trump publicly announced he would be happy to shut down the government, and take responsibility for it, if it meant he could secure funding for border security. That statement caused widespread concern that the president was going to force a partial government shutdown if the federal government if Congress failed to give him his border wall funding.
Sanders said Tuesday morning she does not believe the administration wants to shut down the government, but reiterated the president’s commitment to get border wall funding.
“At the end of the day we don’t want to shut down the government. We want to shut down the border from illegal immigration, from drugs coming into this country and make sure we know who is coming and why they’re coming,” Sanders said. “That’s what the president is focused on and he is not going to back down until he gets what he needs to make sure the people of this country are protected.”
