By Kristina Peterson
WASHINGTON -- Less than a week before the federal government
could run out of money, White House officials said President Donald
Trump wants any spending deal to include some funding for a border
wall, despite little appetite among congressional Republicans for
risking a partial shutdown over the issue.
The administration's last-minute push, voiced on Sunday talk
shows and by the president himself on Twitter, injected a note of
volatility into the coming week, when lawmakers return after a
recess and with little time for reaching an agreement to keep the
government operating after its current funding expires at 12:01
a.m. Saturday -- also the 100th day of Mr. Trump's presidency.
That deadline has left congressional Republicans juggling the
demands of the White House and its shifting messages with those of
Democrats, whose votes will be needed to pass a spending bill to
avoid a government shutdown.
Complicating the intricate negotiations over the funding bill,
top White House officials also are also urging House Republicans to
move swiftly to revive a partisan health-care bill that stalled
last month, and Mr. Trump has said he would release a proposal for
overhauling the tax code on Wednesday.
Given the complications and tight timeline, few, if any, of Mr.
Trump's legislative ambitions are likely to be realized by
Saturday. That means GOP lawmakers would face the uncomfortable
choice of denying or deferring some of Mr. Trump's wishes, such as
funding the wall, before the symbolic 100th day, or triggering a
showdown with Democrats.
House Republicans held a weekend conference call where GOP
leaders said they would focus first on striking a deal to keep the
government funded.
"The top priority is keeping the government open," Rep. Tom Reed
(R., N.Y.) said in an interview after the Saturday afternoon call.
"I support the [border] wall, but I don't like us getting bogged
down in symbolic, ideological fights" on must-pass legislation.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told Republicans that the
House Appropriations Committee had been working closely with the
White House on the spending agreement, according to a Republican on
the call.
"And so, wherever we land will be a product the president can
and will support," Mr. Ryan said, according to that person. If
lawmakers can't reach a bipartisan deal by Friday, they may pass a
one-week stopgap measure, buying more time for negotiations,
lawmakers and aides predicted. A larger bill would fund the
government until October and could include a newly written
defense-spending bill.
The spending bill under discussion already was expected to
include some of the president's wishes, including an increase in
funding for the military and border security.
But White House officials began pushing for more late last week,
potentially destabilizing the precarious balance required to avert
a shutdown.
Administration officials said Mr. Trump wants the spending bill
to include funding to begin building the wall along the southern
border. However, they haven't threatened that he would veto a bill
that excluded it.
"The president has been pretty straightforward about his desire
and the need for a border wall," Homeland Security Secretary John
Kelly said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN. "I will
suspect he will be insistent on the funding."
In March, the administration asked Congress for $1.4 billion in
spending for the current fiscal year for the project, with an
additional $2.6 billion for the next fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1.
Administration officials said the fiscal 2017 money would pay for
48 miles of new border and levee wall systems, and 14 miles of
replacement fencing, as well as some technology improvements and
road construction.
"It's not like we're inserting something that the president
didn't talk about on the campaign," White House budget director
Mick Mulvaney said in an interview Friday. "It should come as a
surprise to no one that President Trump wants money for a southern
border wall."
Mr. Trump himself repeated his request over Twitter on Sunday.
"The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall
despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang
members," he said.
But White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday the
administration could be flexible on whether the spending bill
included money specifically for the wall, suggesting funds for
border security could be considered sufficient for now.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats in both chambers have warned that
they aren't willing to fund the wall in the coming spending
bill.
"The Democrats do not support the wall," House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said Sunday on NBC. "The wall is, in my
view, immoral, expensive, unwise, and when the president says
'Well, I promised a wall during my campaign,' I don't think he said
he was going to pass billions of dollars of cost of the wall on to
the taxpayer."
While some Republicans said they would be willing to set aside
funds for the border, many are reluctant to imperil a bill that
would need at least eight Democratic votes to pass the Senate. GOP
leaders are also likely to need Democratic votes in the House,
where some conservatives are expected to oppose the bill, giving
Democrats unusual leverage at a time of full GOP government
control.
Democrats are pushing to include payments, known as
"cost-sharing reductions," that help support Affordable Care Act
plans by helping insurers lower costs for low-income consumers. An
abrupt withdrawal of the payments would pose an immediate threat to
health-insurance markets, potentially triggering the collapse of
health plans midyear.
With Republicans in control of both the White House and Congress
for the first time since early 2007, GOP lawmakers and aides have
stressed the need to demonstrate their party can govern,
particularly after House leaders were forced to pull their
health-care bill from the floor last month when it became clear it
lacked enough Republican support to pass. Mr. Priebus said on NBC
Sunday that he "would like to have a vote this week" on a modified
health bill, "but again, it's not something that has to happen in
order to define our success."
Even if the bill were to clear the House this week, it isn't
clear it could pass the Senate and certainly couldn't do so before
Saturday.
--Brody Mullins, Peter Nicholas and Michelle Hackman contributed
to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2017 19:43 ET (23:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.