Trump expected to sign border deal to avert shutdown

By Jill Colvin, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram and Jonathan Lemire / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — With little Washington appetite for another shutdown, President Donald Trump is expected to grudgingly accept an agreement that would keep the government open but provide just a fraction of the money he’s been demanding for his Mexican border wall.

White House officials cautioned on Wednesday that they have yet to receive full legislative language. And Trump has a history of suddenly balking at deals after signaling he would sign them. But barring any major changes, he is nonetheless expected to acquiesce, according to two White House officials and other Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Trump and his aides have also signaled that he is preparing to use executive action to try to secure additional funding for the wall by shifting federal dollars without congressional sign-off.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were still haggling over final details of the deal Wednesday, but they appeared on track to finish soon.

Given the back-and-forth, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the president was awaiting a final version before making a final call.

“We want to see the final piece of legislation, and we’ll make a determination at that point,” she said Wednesday.

Trump said of the proposed deal on Tuesday, “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled.”

“But the wall is getting built, regardless. It doesn’t matter because we’re doing other things beyond what we’re talking about here.”

Trump sounded more conciliatory in a Tuesday night tweet, thanking “all Republicans for the work you have done in dealing with the Radical Left on Border Security.”

Accepting the deal, worked out by congressional negotiators from both parties, would be a disappointment for a president who has repeatedly insisted he needs $5.7 billion for a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border and painted the project as paramount for national security. Trump turned down a similar deal in December, forcing the 35-day partial shutdown that left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks and Republicans reeling. There is little appetite in Washington for a repeat.

Lawmakers tentatively agreed to a deal that would provide nearly $1.4 billion for border barriers and keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. Filling in the details has taken some time, as is typical, and aides reported Wednesday that the measure had hit some snags, though they doubted they would prove fatal.

Last-minute hang-ups include whether to include a simple extension of the Violence Against Women Act as Senate Republicans want or move a new, longer-term bill separately, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is pushing.

Democrats are also pressing to try to make sure employees of federal contractors receive back pay for wages lost during the last shutdown. The continued haggling means that a House vote can’t come before Thursday night, at the earliest.

Given the back-and-forth, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the president was awaiting a final version before making a final call.

“We want to see the final piece of legislation, and we’ll make a determination at that point,” she said Wednesday.

In conversations with allies, Trump has complained about the deal, calling the committee members poor negotiators, said a person familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to speak publicly. Trump has also made clear that he’d wanted more money for the wall and has expressed concern the plan is being spun as a defeat for him in the media.

But with little appetite for another shutdown, allies believe the president has little choice but to sign and move on.

The agreement would allow 55 miles (88 kilometers) of new fencing — constructed using existing designs such as metal slats— but far less than the 215 miles (345 kilometers) the White House demanded in December. The fencing would be built in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

Full details were not expected to be released until later Wednesday as lawmakers worked to translate their verbal agreement into legislation. But Republicans urged Trump to sign on.

“I hope he signs the bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who joined other GOP leaders in selling it as a necessary compromise that represented a major concession from Democrats.

Lawmakers need to pass some kind of funding bill to avoid another shutdown at midnight Friday and have worked to avoid turning to another short-term bill that would only prolong the border debate.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said he needed more time to study the plan, but also said that he was not expecting another shutdown this weekend when funding for parts of the government would run out. He also made clear that, if he does sign the deal, he is strongly considering supplementing it by moving money from what he described as less important areas of government.

“We have a lot of money in this country and we’re using some of that money — a small percentage of that money — to build the wall, which we desperately need,” he said.

The White House has long been laying the groundwork for Trump to use executive action to bypass Congress and divert money into wall construction. He could declare a national emergency or invoke other executive authority to tap funds including money set aside for military construction, disaster relief and counterdrug efforts.

Previewing that strategy last week, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said, “We’ll take as much money as you can give us, and then we will go off and find the money someplace else — legally — in order to secure that southern barrier.” He said more than $5.7 billion in available funds had been identified.

McConnell, who had previously said he was troubled by the concept of declaring a national emergency, said Tuesday that Trump “ought to feel free to use whatever tools he can legally use to enhance his effort to secure the border.”

The framework now under consideration contains plenty to anger lawmakers on both the right and left — more border fencing than many Democrats would like and too little for conservative Republicans — but its authors praised it as a genuine compromise that would keep the government open and allow everyone to move on.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer urged Trump to accept the package to avert another shutdown, calling the tentative accord “welcome news.”

But the proposal was met with fury by some on the right, including Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, a close friend of the president, who slammed it as a “garbage compromise.”

Conservative Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a close ally of the president, said that if Trump does agrees to the deal he could be spared a “conservative uproar because everyone expects executive action to follow.”

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.