Lawmakers are bracing for a fierce fight over President Trump’s border wall as they work to prevent a showdown but with no plan on how to avoid it.
Government funding for Trump’s wall and agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become a landmine in spending bill negotiations, with talks late last year leading to a 35-day partial closure that marked the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who chairs the Department of Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, put her hand to her chin as though she were deep in thought when asked if there was a plan to avoid another battle over the wall and immigration-related issues.
“Hmm, that’s a good question. I think it’s going to be a problem,” she said. “The wall and ICE beds are always a point of contention but, you know, it’s a high priority for many of us and so we’ll just have to power through it.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is one of the 12 individual appropriations bills that need to pass Congress and be signed into law by Oct. 1, or be extended by way of a continuing resolution to buy lawmakers more time.
The DHS bill is emerging as a perennial problem child for negotiators because it touches on politically divisive issues like the wall, asylum and the potential separation of migrant families. Senators on both sides of the aisle say they have no desire to repeat the knock-down, drag-out fight similar to last year’s funding bills, which ended with Trump infuriating even traditional allies by declaring a national emergency to get extra wall money.
But in a year that began with a shutdown, followed by a months-long fight over disaster aid money and then the budget negotiations, appropriators responsible for moving funding legislation through Congress are struggling to find an offramp to avoid another high-stakes fight. Asked how they’ll avoid a repeat headache of last year, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Appropriations Committee, laughed. “I wish there was a plan,” he said. “We should act like adults and understand that with Democrats in charge of the House there is not going to be money for the wall in this budget and come to that conclusion now rather than, you know, when we’re on the precipice of a shutdown.”
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