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U.S. Congress to push stop-gap funding bill with no border wall money


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U.S. Congress to push stop-gap funding bill with no border wall money

By Richard Cowan

 

2018-12-19T152915Z_1_LYNXMPEEBI17Y_RTROPTP_4_USA-IMMIGRATION-CARAVAN-(1).jpg

FILE PHOTO - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials stand guard close to the border wall, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to fund several federal agencies through Feb. 8 and avert a partial government shutdown, but without including $5 billion (3.96 billion pounds) for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that President Donald Trump demanded.

 

By a voice vote the Senate approved the stop-gap measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for passage before a midnight Friday deadline when existing funding expires for several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.

 

The bill would continue spending at current levels for about 25 percent of programs administered by Washington.

 

If approved by the House and signed by Trump, the measure would force a newly-seated Congress to begin 2019 facing yet another in a series of budget and border security fights.

 

By postponing longer-term decisions on spending for agencies that also include the departments of Justice, Commerce, Interior and Agriculture, Democrats will be in a somewhat stronger bargaining position next year when they take majority control of the House.

 

Democrats and many Republicans have challenged the wisdom of giving Trump $5 billion this year to build a wall - which carries an estimated $24 billion price tag - that they argue would be less effective in securing the border than building on a mix of tools already in place.

 

In a last-ditch attempt to resolve the impasse this year, McConnell on Tuesday proposed giving Trump a $1 billion fund that he could use at his discretion for border security.

 

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer labelled that a "slush fund" that would lack the votes to pass Congress.

 

On Wednesday, McConnell attacked Democrats for rejecting it, saying, "It seems like political spite for the president may be winning out over sensible policy."

 

The White House said on Tuesday it would search for already appropriated government funds to be redirected towards building the wall, since Congress was not cooperating with its request for the money.

 

It was a tacit acknowledgment that Congress was unlikely to fund the wall and marked a move away from Trump's tough rhetoric last week that he would be "proud" to shut down the government over wall funding.

 

But Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, said the administration could not shift money around without Congress’ consent.

 

"The House and Senate will not approve a wall from reprogrammed funds or anything else. It won't happen," Schumer warned.

Trump accused Democrats in a Twitter post earlier on Wednesday of being willing to fund everything but "border security and the military," while his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway took Republican lawmakers to task for not pushing harder on the issue.

 

"On this, they're walking away," Conway said in an interview on Fox News.

 

Just before passing the spending bill, a group of Democratic senators took the unusual step of singing Christmas songs in the chamber as other lawmakers engaged in serious conversation.

 

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernadette Baum; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-20
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It’s just a delaying tactic come February Donald will be screaming for his wall and trying to blame Democrats for not getting it what a fail of a president biggest loss in stocks since 1931 abandoning the Kurds and the fight against isis all to get cover for his leagle troubles are we tired of winning yet?

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It's sad that blind hatred for President Trump is making folks make bad decisions. Anyone who watches the news can see the disrepair of existing barriers. Common sense would dictate that money is required not only for new construction but also maintenance and new surveillance equipment. 

 

I'm sure if barry was in office it wouldn't be a problem. The wacky dems only care about defeating President Trump and not about the best interest of this country. 

 

 

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55 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

It's sad that blind hatred for President Trump is making folks make bad decisions. Anyone who watches the news can see the disrepair of existing barriers. Common sense would dictate that money is required not only for new construction but also maintenance and new surveillance equipment. 

 

I'm sure if barry was in office it wouldn't be a problem. The wacky dems only care about defeating President Trump and not about the best interest of this country. 

 

 

Money for maintenance is not being denied. In fact, when Trump claimed that the wall was being built (and even Ann Coulter called him a liar) it was actually maintenance work being done on the existing barriers.

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4 hours ago, attrayant said:

Trump doesn't want a wall any more - he wants artisanal steel slats.

 

1154972769_steelslats.PNG.197a6ec649d70dc3be7553273004b16e.PNG

 

Let's hope Mexico hasn't discovered magnets.

Well, he had been promising a solid, reinforced concrete wall during his campaign.   Now we are down to a glorified fence.   

 

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Well looks like Donald is having a hissey fit he has those tiny little hands crossed across his chest he’s digging those little bone spurs in getting that pouty face on and not signing unless he gets 5 billion for his dumb ass wall meanwhile the Dow is down another 500 and he pulled the plug on the guys fighting isis in Syria tired of winning yet?

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4 hours ago, Tug said:

Well looks like Donald is having a hissey fit he has those tiny little hands crossed across his chest he’s digging those little bone spurs in getting that pouty face on and not signing unless he gets 5 billion for his dumb ass wall meanwhile the Dow is down another 500 and he pulled the plug on the guys fighting isis in Syria tired of winning yet?

 

I think he's about to discover that he has gone to The Wall well once too many times. A Wall To Far if you will.

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15 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

It's sad that blind hatred for President Trump is making folks make bad decisions.

 

 

It's not blind hatred.  We can see what he's doing, and that's why we hate it.  This is fully informed and justified hatred.

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Rush and Laura seem to have gotten to trump and ryan.

 

It seems like the House bill does have $5 B for the wall. Not sure if it has legs though?

 

I thought Mexico was supposed to pay for this - I mean trump said so a gazillion times, but alas, we taxpayers seem to be footing the bill.

 

Interestingly, "The Wall" was merely meant to be mnemonic for trump, created by bannon, to make it easy for him to remember to yammer on about immigration and immigrants during his stump speech. It was never supposed to be a "thing", but the savage base must be soothed.

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