WASHINGTON - The U.S. Congress on Thursday
aimed to end a dispute over border security with bipartisan
legislation that would avert another partial government shutdown
but does not give President Donald Trump the money he sought for
a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The measure faces votes in the Republican-led Senate and
Democratic-controlled House of Representatives before going to
the Republican president, who has not yet announced whether he
will sign it. Trump triggered a 35-day-long shutdown of about a
quarter of the federal government with his December demand for
$5.7 billion to help build a wall, but did not get the money in
a deal that ended that shutdown and does not get it in the
legislation now before lawmakers.
Late on Wednesday, negotiators put the finishing touches on
the legislation that would provide more than $300 billion to
fund the Department of Homeland Security and a range of other
federal agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal
year. Funding is due to expire for those agencies on Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on the
Senate floor, called the legislation "a compromise that no side
will view as a perfect deal," but he called it "a success for
our bipartisan process" and reiterated his call for Trump to
sign it.
The legislation would provide $1.37 billion in new money to
help build 55 miles (88.5 km) of new physical barriers on the
border. It is the same level of funding Congress appropriated
for border security measures last year, including barriers but
not concrete walls.
"When the Senate votes on the agreement, we'll be voting to
avoid a second partial shutdown and provide the certainty of a
fully functioning federal government," Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell said. "Later today, I hope each of my colleagues
will join me in moving forward with the agreement produced by
this hard work and the president will sign it into law."
The legislation would also fund the Justice Department,
Commerce Department, State Department, Department of
Agriculture, Internal Revenue Service and others, covering
roughly 800,000 federal workers.
Failure to enact it would shutter many government programs,
from national parks maintenance and air traffic controller
training programs to the collection and publication of important
data for financial markets, for the second time this year.
Trump, widely blamed for the previous shutdown, said on
Wednesday he would hold off on a decision on the legislation
until he examines the final version. White House economic
adviser Larry Kudlow, speaking to reporters at the White House
on Thursday, said Trump now is "taking a look" at the measure.
'LET'S ALL PRAY'
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who was presiding over
the opening of the Senate, added his own prayer at the end of a
prayer by the guest chaplain. "Let's all pray that the president
will have the wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesn't
shut down," Grassley said.
Since he ran for office in 2016, Trump has been demanding
billions of dollars to build a wall on the southwest border,
saying a national security crisis required a quick response to
curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking. He originally
said Mexico would pay for the wall along the 2,000-mile
(3,200-km) border, an idea Mexico dismissed.
"This agreement denies funding for President Trump's border
wall and includes several key measures to make our immigration
system more humane," House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman
Nita Lowey, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is in regular contact
with the White House, said Trump was "inclined to take the deal
and move on." But Graham also told reporters Trump would then
look elsewhere to find more money to build the wall and was
"very inclined" to declare a national emergency to secure the
funds.
Such a move, bypassing Congress and redirecting funds
previously approved by lawmakers for other purposes in order to
construct the wall, likely would spark a court battle, as it is
Congress and not the president that mainly decides how federal
funds get spent under the U.S. Constitution. Several Republicans
have cautioned Trump against taking the unilateral action.
Under the bill, the government could hire 75 new immigrant
judge teams to help reduce a huge backlog in cases and hundreds
of additional border patrol agents.
Hoping to reduce violence and economic distress in Central
America that fuels immigrant asylum cases in the United States,
the bill also provides $527 million to continue humanitarian
assistance to those countries.
The House Appropriations Committee said the bill would set a
path for reducing capacity at detention facilities for
immigrants ahead of possible deportation. The panel said it
would reduce the number of beds at the detention facilities to
about 40,520 by the end of the fiscal year, down from a current
count of approximately 49,060.
Democrats sought reductions, arguing that would force
federal agents to focus on apprehending violent criminals and
repeat offenders and discourage arrests of undocumented
immigrants for minor traffic violations, for example.
The Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee said
there were provisions in the bill that could result in an
increase in detention beds from last year.