President Donald Trump tweeted Friday morning that he is considering vetoing the $1.3 trillion spending bill Congress passed early Friday morning.
“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded,” the president tweeted Friday.
I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018
The president claimed Democrats have left the roughly 800,000 young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, known as DREAMers, completely “abandoned.” Democrats shut down the government for a weekend in early February to try to secure legal protections and a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, but ultimately caved and reopened the government the following Monday.
Trump is also upset that Republican leadership were only able to get him just over 1/25 of what he wanted for the construction of his long-promised border wall.
Lawmakers offered $1.57 billion for the construction of physical barriers along the southern U.S.-Mexico border. That funding would include only $641 million for 33 miles of new border wall security — under half of what the president asked Congress for previously. In total, Congress is providing grossly under the $25 billion the White House asked for construction of a border wall and enhanced border security.
House lawmakers passed the omnibus 256 – 167 Wednesday afternoon, sending the bill to the upper chamber with roughly 24 hours before an impending government shut down. Senators passed the bill early Friday morning 65 -32, with 24 Republican senators, led by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voting against the spending measure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan sold the bill to their colleagues as a win because they were able to get more money for defense, for the construction of small portions of the president’s border wall and to combat the opioid crisis.
Republicans and conservatives are upset because the bill spends far too little on border security and far too much money on a host of Democratic pet projects, like energy initiatives, sanctuary cities and esoteric scientific research. Many GOP congressmen are also angry because the bill was negotiated behind closed doors, with little to no input from rank and file members and zero accountability to the public.
Democrats also got little to no increases in border enforcement officials, beds for immigration detention and were able to constrict the boundaries for construction of new border fencing.
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