CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito says $1.6 billion in new border security funding is “plenty enough to move us forward.”
Capito, during an appearance Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline,” said she spoke with the White House Monday urging President Donald Trump to agree with the provisions of a bipartisan bill passed by a subcommittee she chairs in order to avert a partial government shutdown.
Capito said she agrees with President Trump that as much funding as possible should be sought for border security but the $1.6 billion is more realistic than Trump’s latest $5 billion proposal.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that a compromise is going to have to be reached and I think a logical compromise, in my opinion, is the bill that we passed,” Capito said.
The bill includes more than 60-miles of a physical border wall along with other technologies Capito said are needed to detect drugs and make the border safe.
The president originally requested $1.6 billion.
“Physical barriers work and so do other methods of securing the border,” she said. “In my view when you have 51,000 people who are apprehended at the border in October, we have a problem and we have to solve it.”
The partial government shutdown would come Saturday if no agreement is reached. Capito said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not in favor of a shutdown. She said McConnell is talking with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer but it’s Schumer and Trump who will eventually have to agree. It’s believed it will take 9 to 11 Democrats for the plan to pass the Senate.
It may not be all President Trump wants but the $1.6 billion bill has the best chance of passing, according to Capito.
“I think you’re going to have to take the victory here. One-point-six is going to be plenty of money to move us forward,” Capito said.
Capito told The Hill newspaper when her subcommittee passed the lower funding bill five months ago that President Trump was frustrated.
“He wants more robust funding. We want more robust funding. But we have to look at it as a border system, and we talked about that a lot with him, so I would characterize his response as frustrated that it’s not higher, but we’re telling him and we believe that this is part of a process and we need his support because we’re on the same team,” Capito said at the time.