After a Concrete Agreement between the Democrats and Republicans no Concrete Wall
President Trump had demanded $5.7 billion in funding for new construction of his signature border wall, launching a drag-out fight with Democrats, who rejected the provision outright, and leading to a five-week partial shutdown beginning Dec. 22.
In a blow to Trump, the new spending package has no funding for the concrete border wall that stood as the central promise of his 2016 campaign - an exclusion that Democrats are trumpeting as evidence that they won the long partisan standoff.
But Trump is expected to announce an emergency declaration to unearth new funds for his wall, which will also set up a fight in the courts.
In the process, Pelosi also secured billions of dollars in new funding for a host of Democratic priorities, including a $1 billion increase to conduct the 2020 census; a $500 million hike in public housing funds; $1.9 billion for Amtrak; and $310 million for National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.The president shut down the government for 35 days over demands that Congress give him $5.7 billion for a wall on the southern border. In the end, Congress gave him no money for his concrete wall and just $1.375 billion
Fox News host Sean Hannity, one of Trump's usual allies on cable news, trashed the deal as a "garbage compromise." Fox's Laura Ingraham called it a "Total SCAM!"
Trump is expected to declare a national emergency on the border - a move that he believes gives him the authority to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from other pots to pay for his border wall.
In December, conservative leaders, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), lobbied Trump to shut down the government if Democrats didn't cave and agree to fund his wall.
Despite an 11th-hour push by Democrats, back pay for federal contractors who didn't get paychecks during the longest shutdown in U.S. history was left out of the final funding package. That includes people like custodians and security guards, as well as defense contractors and consultants.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/winners-and-losers-in-the-border-security-deal/ar-BBTC1Gd?ocid=spartanntp
Comments
Post a Comment