Democrat leaders reportedly doubled proposed border spending on a “smart wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico, after an end to the government shutdown, but remain opposed to a physical barrier.
“Representative James E. Clyburn, the No 3. Democrat, said … that Democrats could back a $5.7 billion funding measure that included drones and refitted ports of entry – but no wall,” The New York Times reports.
The number is significant because it’s the same sum President Trump is requesting for a physical wall on the border, a promise he repeatedly made during his presidential campaign. It’s also the latest sign that Democrats are feeling the heat from the government shutdown.
But New York Rep. Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the House appropriations committee, told MSNBC Thursday that Democrats actually have “no consensus” on how to secure the border, admitting that lawmakers would only hash out those details after the government reopened.
“Well, I find that the proposal you’re talking about is interesting, but there is no consensus right now,” she said. “When the government is open, we will work together, hopefully in a bipartisan way … and then we’ll come up with a plan that make sense.”
“First we have to open the government,” Lowey insisted.
That’s a lot different than what Clyburn told the Times.
“Using the figure the president put on the table, if his $5.7 billion is about border security, then we see ourselves fulfilling that request, only doing it with what I like to call using a smart wall,” he said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Lowey’s colleague from New York, House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep Hakeem Jeffries, have also danced around the idea of a bigger deal that would exchange protections for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors for physical barriers on the border, according to the Times.
At a recent press conference, Hoyer wouldn’t rule out the idea.
“It’s clear what the president wants; it’s clear what we want,” he said. “If you have a negotiation, both parties are going to put on the table what they want.”
Both sides did exactly that Thursday when the Senate held votes on competing measures to end the shutdown.
Both failed.
Vox reports:
They took up two proposals: 1) a short-term spending bill to fund the government through February 8 without money for the border wall, which House Democrats have passed; and 2) a White House proposal, negotiated among Republicans, to open the government with $5 billion in funding for the border wall in exchange for a short-term extension of two existing immigration programs — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status, both of which the Trump administration has tried to sunset.
But neither bill ever had enough support in the Senate to pass. That said, six Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the short-term spending bill that didn’t include wall funding, a sign that President Trump’s position on the border wall isn’t fully backed within his own party. Only one Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has always supported Trump’s wall, voted for the White House proposal (he voted in favor of both bills). Notably, Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (AR) and Mike Lee (UT), voted against the president’s proposal as well as the one proposed by Democrats.
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