US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said that there would be no “wall money” in any compromise border security deal as she and US President Donald Trump signaled that congressional negotiators might never satisfy his border proposal.
Trump wrote that Democrats “are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL. I’ve got you covered. Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!”
Pelosi left the door open for an accord that could finance some barriers, citing what she said was already existing “Normandy fencing” that blocks vehicles.
Photo: AP
“If the president wants to call that a wall, he can call that a wall,” she told reporters.
“Is there a place for enhanced fencing? Normandy fencing would work,” she said.
Pelosi also said that “there’s not going to be any wall money in the legislation.”
When Trump ended a government shutdown over funding for border security, he agreed to reopen government until Feb. 15, giving lawmakers more time to craft a bipartisan border security compromise. If there is no deal by then, he has threatened to revive the shutdown or declare a national emergency, which he says would let him shift billions from military construction projects to border security.
He criticized Democrats’ negotiating stance so far, telling reporters in the Oval Office that Pelosi is “just playing games” and that Republican bargainers are “wasting their time.”
In an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday night, Trump said he has “set the stage” to take action on his own.
“I’ll continue to build the wall and we’ll get the wall finished,” he said. “Now whether or not I declare a national emergency — that you’ll see.”
However, US Senator John Cornyn told reporters that “there are a lot of us that are trying to dissuade” Trump from declaring a national emergency should border security talks deadlock.
Cornyn, a close adviser to US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he has “absolute confidence” that such a declaration would be challenged in court and said that the US Congress might even vote to defy Trump.
“The president needs to know that before he heads down that path,” Cornyn said.
US Senate Majority Whip John Thune told reporters that “a lot of folks are uncomfortable” with an emergency declaration.
Thune did not rule out a challenge by the Senate, calling the question “hypothetical.”
Earlier this week, McConnell, said that declaring a national emergency would be “government dysfunction, which should be embarrassing to everyone on a bipartisan basis.”
Lawmakers say that if Trump declares an emergency, future Democratic presidents might do the same for issues they favor that Congress derails.
Democrats offered further details of their border security plan, unveiling a measure that would provide no funds for a wall.
It would significantly boost spending for scanners at ports of entry, humanitarian aid for apprehended migrants, and new aircraft and ships to police the US-Mexico border. It would freeze the number of border patrol agents and block any wall construction in wildlife refuges along the border.
Without a border security accord, lawmakers could avert another shutdown by once again temporarily financing dozens of federal agencies, perhaps for months.
Trump has been unpredictable in the shutdown debate, mixing softer rhetoric about a multifaceted approach to border security with campaign-style bluster about the wall. Lawmakers negotiating the bill are aware that he could quash an agreement at any time.
“Obviously, it makes it more challenging,” Cornyn told reporters. “You keep talking and try to understand where he is and try to work it out.”
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