Nancy Pelosi Vows 'There Will Not Be Any Wall Money' In Any Deal To Avoid Feb. 15 Shutdown

Brittany M. Hughes | January 31, 2019
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Despite facing another partial government shutdown that again threatens the paychecks of some 800,000 federal employees in mid-February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doubling down on her vow that any potential deal to keep the government open won’t include a dime for Trump’s proposed border barrier.

From the AP:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says there will be no money for President Donald Trump’s border wall in any deal to keep the government open past a Feb. 15 deadline.

A bipartisan group of House-Senate negotiators met for the first time Wednesday, and Pelosi addressed the issue at a session with reporters on Thursday. The California Democrat said she wants to see the negotiators’ bipartisan bill by next Friday.

She told a news conference: “There will not be any wall money in the legislation.”

The Democrats' proposed legislature also reportedly excludes any money for additional border agents, which Trump has also requested.

The inability for Congress to reach a deal by the Feb. 15 deadline will result in another partial-government shutdown that will jeopardize the paychecks of some 800,000 federal employees, many of whom already experienced a lapse in pay during the recent 35-day shutdown that wound up costing the United States about $11 billion - roughly twice the amount Trump's asking for in wall funding.

Pelosi’s dig-in comes less than a week after President Trump signed an agreement to fund temporarily re-open the government for three weeks to give Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill a chance to reach a bipartisan deal to fund the government while still providing some money for part of a fence along vulnerable sections of the Southwest U.S. border. Trump has vowed that he won’t sign any spending deal that doesn’t include funding for a physical structure.

Trump has also repeatedly said in the past that in exchange for the $5.7 billion he wants for parts of the wall, he’d agree to a three-year extension of President Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – an offer he now seems to have taken off the table.

(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)

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