No Border Wall Funding in Homeland Security Bill
Budget

No Border Wall Funding in Homeland Security Bill

JONATHAN ERNST/Reuters

The House Appropriations Committee advanced a $63.8 billion Homeland Security bill Tuesday, setting up a potential confrontation with Republican lawmakers and the White House over money for the border wall.

“The bill provides no funding for new additional border barriers and prohibits the use of any other federal funds for border barrier construction other than those explicitly appropriated by Congress in prior years,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security.

President Trump’s budget proposal for 2020 requested $8.6 billion for the border wall, and Republican lawmakers warned Tuesday that Trump could close the government again if lawmakers don’t provide the funds he wants. “This could set us up for yet another government shutdown,” said Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee.

Separately, the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up a supplemental spending bill next week related to the surge of Central American migrants arriving at the southern border. The White House has requested $4.5 billion to address the situation, with $2.9 billion of that to be used to care for unaccompanied migrant children. “It’s far past time to get serious about this to solve this problem,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.

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