House Freedom Caucus Launches Last-Minute Plan To Force Border Wall into Any Spending Bill
“Build the Wall” might have been the rallying cry of Donald Trump and his supporters during the 2016 presidential election, but it looks like that promise could be dead in the water.
Two years after voters sent Trump to the White House, his most well-known proposal hasn’t made much headway. With Democrats set to take control of the House in January and even the Republican-run Senate hesitant about including the requested border funding in the congressional budget, it looks like the wall has stalled.
But the House Freedom Caucus isn’t giving in without a fight. The group of 34 conservatives in Congress said they intend a last-minute push on Wednesday night to get the wall funded — and they acknowledge that it might be the final chance to make it happen.
“HFC members will be holding a special order tonight to call for wall funding and reforms to end catch and release,” James Braid, the policy director for the group, told The Western Journal.
“HFC will try to amend any spending bill so that it 1) funds President Trump’s border wall and 2) closes asylum loopholes by ending ‘catch and release,'” Braid said.
“This would secure our borders by drastically reducing the inflow of illegal immigration while simultaneously allowing our laws to work as intended,” he continued.
“We need to stop cartels from bringing drugs across an open border, and we need to disincentivize abuse of our generous asylum policies so that we can make our immigration system work as intended,” Braid said.
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, who also serves as the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, echoed that statement.
“The bottom line is simple: It’s deeply irresponsible for this Congress to keep sending the president status quo funding bills, without any of his promises included, and essentially say, ‘Sign this, or shut down the government,'” Meadows said.
“The president doesn’t pass bills — that’s our job, and for Congress to surrender and accept defeat before the hard work even starts is wrong. The time to fight is now,” he said.
Punting to Feb. 8 on a CR not only gives Democrats a Christmas present, it offers them a Valentine’s Day gift. Democrats will win, the wall will not be built, and Congress will once again have punted when we should’ve been taking a stand. The time to fight is now. Zero excuse.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 19, 2018
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio was just as upset. “This is frustrating. We should have pushed this in March,” he told The Daily Signal.
“What we know is that this is not what we told the voters we were going to do,” Jordan said.
His frustration makes perfect sense. After all, Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House for two years. They had ample opportunity to tackle the border wall issue, which was undeniably a major part of Trump’s electoral win.
Instead they hemmed and hawed, making shockingly slow progress on securing the border.
It’s one thing to blame Democrats when they control the House; it’s nothing but excuse-making when conservatives had a clear path to the proverbial end zone but didn’t move the ball.
As recent events along the southern border have shown, keeping it secure and properly funded is more important than ever.
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