President Donald Trump won’t sign a spending bill to keep the government fully running without funding for a wall along the southern border.
The Senate passed a spending bill late Wednesday, sending it to the House of Representatives, but lacking Trump’s request for $5 billion to build the wall. Earlier Thursday, it was widely reported that Trump would sign a bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
However, after House Republicans met with the president at the White House, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said legislation in its current form wouldn’t go forward.
“The president said he will not sign this bill,” Ryan said, adding, “because of legitimate concerns about border security.”
After taking scathing criticism from conservative commentators accusing him of caving on his signature 2016 campaign issue, Trump indicated commitment to the wall in a tweet.
When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries – but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2018
During the meeting, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement.
“The president is having a meeting with Republican House Members at noon today,” Sanders said. “At this moment, the president does not want to go further without border security, which includes steel slats or a wall. The president is continuing to weigh his options.”
Congress has already approved funding for 75 percent of the federal agency budget through the end of the fiscal year in September 2019, including for the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Veterans Affairs.
If Congress and Trump can’t reach an agreement by Friday, the partial shutdown would affect 25 percent of government funding across the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, State, and Transportation.
The migrant caravan indicates a need to demand increased border security, said James Carafano, vice president for national security and foreign policy at The Heritage Foundation.
“How can you argue there isn’t a need for more border security,” Carafano told The Daily Signal. “If you didn’t have border security, the caravan would have walked right into the country. Democrats, just because of a political fight with Trump, shouldn’t deny a basic need for the country. The next caravan is just going to go where there isn’t a wall. I don’t think time is on our side.”