House votes for $1.6B down payment on border wall
Associated
Press
The GOP-controlled House has given tentative approval to a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The controversial wall money is being given a ride on legislation to give the Pentagon a massive spending boost and increase funding for veterans medical care. The House added Trump's wall funding by
a 230-196 procedural vote that denied angry Democrats an
up-or-down vote. The wall gets low marks in public opinion
polls and is opposed by many of the GOP's more moderate
lawmakers. Trump promised at nearly every rally and campaign event
that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico said no, and U.S.
taxpayers will have to provide the money. In advancing the broader $788 billion spending bill,
slated for a vote on Thursday, Republicans are trying to
both ease a large backlog of unfinished spending bills and
give both themselves and Trump political wins heading into
the August recess. "As promised to the American people, we are rebuilding
and modernizing our military as an international
powerhouse," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky. At issue are the spending bills passed by Congress each
year to fund the day-to-day operations of federal agencies.
Trump is pushing for a sweeping increase for the Pentagon
and commensurate cuts of more than $50 billion, or 10
percent, from domestic agencies and foreign aid. House
Republicans are responding by adding even more for defense
but have significantly scaled back Trump's cuts to domestic
programs like community development grants and medical
research. GOP leaders had hoped to advance a broader "omnibus"
package that would have included each of the 12 measures.
But the GOP rank and file balked, so Republicans devised a
smaller bill anchored by the Pentagon budget, funding for
veterans programs, and money for the wall. "Every single dime the President requested to start
building a wall on our southern border he's going to get,"
said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "Most
importantly, we're sending more to the VA to fix veterans'
health care and reform outdated VA systems." But most of the sweeping Pentagon increases -- which
total about $60 billion above current levels and almost $30
billion higher than Trump's budget -- would evaporate next
year unless there's a bipartisan agreement to raise budget
"caps" set by a 2011 budget pact. A two-year agreement that
eased those "sequestration" spending limits expires in
September. A fall showdown with Senate Democrats over the wall
awaits and both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate want
additional funding for domestic programs. Democrats have
lots of leverage because their votes are needed to pass the
funding measures. For now, the Senate is working in a
bipartisan fashion on a sharply different set of bills that,
on average, are frozen at current levels. The House is on track to pass the measure along party
lines. Democrats are furious that GOP leaders are denying
them a vote -- which they believe they might have been able
to win -- on killing Trump's border wall. More than 700
miles of fencing and other border barricades were built
about a decade ago. Republicans from border states, swing-district lawmakers,
and Republicans representing sizable Hispanic populations
tend to oppose the wall but are backing it because the money
will be paired with politically sacrosanct funding for
troops in the field and health care for veterans. Earlier this year, Congress and Trump came together of
spending bills for the current budget year that largely
stuck to work done last year under former President Barack
Obama. Trump reluctantly signed a $1.2 trillion catchall
spending bill in May. The current measure, however, reflects the changed
balance of power in GOP-controlled Washington. Weapons
procurement is a top priority, including two additional
littoral combat ships above Trump's request and 14
unrequested next-generation F-35 fighters. "We do not give certainty to our defense or confidence to our troops when we legislate with phony numbers when we refuse to make honest choices about our Defense budget," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Instead of giving certainty to our heroes in uniform, this bill would breach the sequester spending limit by more than $70 billion, forcing a mandatory 13 percent cut to all defense accounts."
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