CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on a legislative package aimed at ending the partial government shutdown as well as funding border security efforts, including President Donald Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for a southern border wall.
The Senate Appropriations Committee released Monday the proposal to fund nine departments and multiple agencies. Trump outlined the legislative deal last weekend in an address at the White House.
The funding bills include $5.7 billion for a physical barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border — Trump’s leading promise of his 2016 presidential campaign — as well as efforts to attract Democratic support, including three years of protection for individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program and people with temporary protection status.
The measure also includes money for additional law enforcement and border agents, and investments for stopping drug and human trafficking into the country.
“I think the president is operating in good faith here,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said of Trump’s proposal during Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“I think he’s trying to reopen the government and achieve the objectives that he’s talked about, which are border security along with addressing some of the issues that Democrats have addressed great concerns on and many of us have with the DACA population.”
The Trump administration moved over the last two years to end DACA and TPS, but Capito said the deal is still worth Democratic consideration.
“Originally, his offers have been just border security and border wall, and now he’s reinstituting something all of us have voted on,” she said.
Monday marked the 31st day of the partial government shutdown. The Senate and House of Representatives passed separate resolutions prior to the shutdown’s start on Dec. 22; the Senate’s continuing resolution did not include Trump’s funding request, instead opting to fund the government through Feb 8. Trump rejected the Senate’s measure.
“That was disappointing to those of us who thought we were at least moving the issue into a longer timeframe to negotiate,” said Capito, the chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said before Trump’s announcement Saturday she would oppose the proposal, adding the provisions would likely fail the Democrat-controlled House. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also came out in opposition over the weekend.
The House has voted multiple times to end the partial government shutdown, but the Senate has not considered any of the measures.
Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., criticized Democratic leaders for seeming unwilling to cooperate with Trump to reach a deal.
“Remember Charlie Brown and Lucy in ‘Peanuts’ when Lucy is holding the football and how many times he goes to kick it and pulls the ball back, and year in and year out we all laughed about that?” he said on “Talkline.”
“Isn’t that the same situation we’re in right now? This immigration problem is not new. It’s been going on for 30, 40 years.”
McKinley added Democrats have to reach out to Trump.
“It’s not going to be 2,000 miles long. Everyone knows that. Nancy knows that,” McKinley said of the proposed wall. “We’re just trying to find a way to interdict some of this flow of felons coming into this country and drugs coming into the country.”
The congressman did note both sides have not been the best at negotiating; Trump walked away from Democrats earlier this month after Pelosi rejected supporting a border barrier.
“I’m not going to say (Trump’s) hands are clean on this. I think everyone in Washington has had a problem with this issue,” he said. “That’s why it has been so thorny.”
Capito said if Democrats don’t like the president’s proposal, propose a different offer.
“That’s what we do when we go to conference; I’m going to drop your idea here and pick up your idea here, and then we end up with a consensus bill,” she said. “And nobody gets everything that they want.”
According to the U.S. Border Patrol, apprehensions at the southern border increased between fiscal years 2017 and 2018, yet peaked in fiscal year 2000 when authorities apprehended 1.6 million individuals. The Drug Enforcement Administration has noted most drugs that come through the southern border come through legal points of entry, and the most common drug is marijuana.
Yet McKinley said there is a crisis on the border, which the public has struggled to understand.
“We’re isolated from it,” he said. “We don’t see the people coming over. We don’t see them passing drugs through the fence, over the fence or whatever. We don’t see those kinds of things. We don’t see them living in tents. There is a crisis there, but I don’t think the American public accepts there is a crisis yet.”
Senators have to have 24-hours notice before a vote on the package can take place. At least 60 senators would have to vote in favor of the proposal for it to pass the chamber; Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority.