The border wall and related immigration-related issues are seen as a major sticking point as lawmakers try to find common ground on federal spending for 2020 by passing detailed spending bills adhering to the broader two-year, $2.7 trillion budget deal that Trump and Democrats agreed to this summer.
Earlier this week, officials from both parties said there is a mutual understanding that border issues will have to be resolved somewhere close to the status quo, in which Congress provides no specific money for the wall but Trump retains the power to shift funds from elsewhere in the government.
But a ruling from a federal judge in Texas late Tuesday presented a new wrinkle — placing an immediate nationwide injunction blocking Trump from using military construction accounts to fund the wall. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling, but it could halt wall construction in the short term, tilting the status quo in favor of Democrats.
“It was a good decision,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) said after leaving the Hispanic Caucus meeting in Pelosi’s office. “Next week is a long time away. We’ll see. But it was a good court decision.”
The spending showdown is taking place in an unusually packed year-end rush on Capitol Hill, with House leaders hoping to finish up a defense policy bill, a North American trade accord and legislation to lower prescription drug costs.
Oh, and a presidential impeachment.
Lowey’s Senate counterpart, Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said the court ruling likely “wouldn’t alter much” since the El Paso-based judge blocked only about a third of the roughly $10 billion Trump is planning to spend in fiscal 2019. But Shelby said he was concerned negotiators hadn’t narrowed the long list of unresolved items.
“We’re at a crucial time of negotiations right now,” he said. “We think we’re so close, and then something erupts. We’re at crunchtime now.”
Lowey estimated Wednesday that roughly 200 items remain to be hashed out. Some of the items — such as wall funding, gun violence research and abortion funding restrictions — are perennial hot spots that are proxies for larger political battles. But most of the items are small and parochial.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), for instance, is insisting that the bill fund a $57 million project to increase the capacity of the Shasta Dam in his home state — a project that would benefit farmers in need of irrigation. But Democrats have blocked the request, citing opposition from environmentalists.
McCarthy, in turn, is holding up a Pelosi request paving the way for a $10 million federal loan to restore historic buildings at the Presidio national park in her home of San Francisco.
Those picayune issues are likely to get swept aside as the deadline approaches. The Trump administration has shown signs that it wants to ink a broad spending deal this month rather than look to another short-term extension of existing funding levels.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to jump-start the moribund spending talks, meeting with Pelosi, Lowey and Shelby to smooth the way to a fiscal accord.
Mnuchin is expected to return to Capitol Hill on Thursday to deal with what congressional officials hope is a narrowed set of issues — though some congressional aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank said they were not yet fully convinced Trump would commit to a deal that constrains his border wall ambitions.
Last year, the wall issue sparked a record 35-day federal shutdown. Ultimately, Trump agreed to sign spending legislation without wall funding but then used his executive powers to shift funds from other accounts — sparking lawsuits, including the one that prompted Tuesday’s nationwide injunction.
Lowey said Wednesday that she is “cautiously optimistic” that the remaining differences could be resolved to Trump’s liking but rapped Republicans for not moving more quickly: “We’ve expressed our views, and I hope they respond more efficiently and effectively.”
Members of the Hispanic Caucus suggested that Pelosi and Lowey will have to be mindful of keeping their own house in order. In addition to direct wall funding, caucus members pushed Pelosi for strong language barring Trump from shifting funds, a freeze on additional detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and higher detention standards for migrants apprehended at the border.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), the caucus’s chairman, said its members were especially keen on putting up a fight on the spending bill after wall-related provisions were stripped out of the annual defense policy bill, which passed the House on Wednesday.
“Everybody is grateful that the court put a hold on the transferability of money for the wall. We also realize that we can’t completely count on that as a strategy,” he said. “The appropriations bill is the one opportunity to restrict the president’s ability to move money around.”
Multiple lawmakers said Pelosi was noncommittal on where exactly she would draw the line.
“She doesn’t make any specific promises,” Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) said, but added that Pelosi assured them the bill would “reflect the values that we hold dear.”
