House Democrats ignored a veto threat and passed two appropriations bills to fund and reopen the U.S. government without including money for the border wall.
The Washington Times reports that Speaker Pelosi “led the House in approving legislation late Thursday that would extend full-year funding to eight departments, and passage of one month of money to Homeland Security — though without any new wall money.”
The full-year bill passed with five Republicans joining all Democrats by 239-192 votes. The Homeland Security bill passed 241-190, with seven GOP members joining the Democrats and voting in favor of its passage.
President Trump has called for another meeting with Congressional leaders at 11:30 a.m. today, however it is unlikely a deal will be reached.
Pelosi told reporters last night, “We’re not doing the wall. Does anybody have any doubt that we’re not doing the wall? We are not doing a wall. So that’s that. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with: The wall is an immorality between countries. It’s an old way of thinking [and] it isn’t cost-effective.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Pence appeared on Fox News last night where he said funding for the border wall was crucial to reaching a deal.
“Democrats broke off negotiations about a week ago, but the president’s made it clear: We’re here to make a deal, but it’s a deal that’s going to result in achieving real gains on border security,” he told host Tucker Carlson. “And, you have no border security without a wall. We will have no deal without a wall.”
The Vice President continued, “What we’ve completely focused on is keeping the president’s promise, to build a wall, to pass legislation that provides other support for border security, that gives the people that are enforcing our laws at the border, and across the border — enforcing our immigration laws, the resources and the tools that they need.”
President Trump also made a surprise appearance at the White House Press briefing yesterday where he reiterated his calls for the border wall.
“We need protection in our country…the people of our country want it,” he said. “I have never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance for border security, for border control, and for frankly the wall or the barrier. I’ve never had anything like it in terms of calls coming in, in terms of people writing in and tweeting….”
