Spending Bill gives Trump over $1.3 billion in wall funding

President Trump and congressional Republicans secured $1.375 billion in funding for a southern border wall as part of a massive year-end spending deal to fund the government through 2020.

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Homeland%202020.pdf

The wall funding was a major sticking point in negotiations, but Democrats and Republicans agreed to the sum, which is the same level of spending allotted in 2019.

The legislation maintains Trump’s authority to transfer funds for more wall construction, which Democrats had also opposed.

Columnist Kristen Soltis Anderson on the expanded Washington Examiner maLawmakers in both parties were eager to avoid a spending showdown after a fight over wall funding earlier this year prompted a 35-day partial government shutdown.Democrats have long opposed wall construction while Trump campaigned on increased border security and promised a wall along the southern border when he ran for president in 2016.

Lawmakers announced the details of the deal on Monday, ahead of a planned Tuesday vote. A stopgap spending bill expires Friday.

The spending legislation will be split into two measures, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, announced. The move to split up the spending reflects Trump’s objection to signing a single omnibus measure, although spending watchdog groups say putting all government spending into two bills isn’t much of an improvement for ensuring against wasteful spending.

Both parties touted wins in the $1.3 trillion measure.

Shelby noted the bill, in addition to providing wall funding, boosts defense spending by $22 billion.

“This legislation makes a robust investment in rebuilding our military and secures significant funds for the president’s border wall system,” Shelby said Monday. “Our hard work over the past few months has ensured a bipartisan path forward to complete our FY2020 appropriations process.”

Democrats had sought to zero out wall funding and to find a way to block Trump from using his authority to move funding from certain accounts to the construction of a border wall.

The funding is far below the more than $8 billion Trump was seeking to build more of the border wall.

Trump used an emergency declaration earlier this year to authorize moving about $7 billion in funding from other parts of the federal budget to the construction of a border wall.

Democrats praised funding in the two measures that will be used to boost election security and to study gun violence.

The measure includes a provision to raise the age of tobacco purchases to 21, and it permanently repeals the tax on high-end health insurance policies and medical devices, which were to become significant sources of funding for Obamacare but generated opposition.

“These bills are the product of bipartisan, bicameral compromise,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat, said. “While there are some things that I would have done differently had I written these bills alone, I am very proud of the work we have completed.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/spending-deal-gives-trump-over-1-3-billion-in-wall-funding