House won’t vote on government funding, wall until next week
House Republicans are putting off a vote on a bill that would fund the government and provide $5 billion in funding for President Trump’s border wall.
A vote schedule released by the House GOP does not include a vote on a measure to fund the government or the wall. The House is expected to leave town Thursday and is not expected to resume business until Wednesday — two days before a deadline for funding the government.
{mosads}The border wall funding is at the center of a fight that could shut down parts of the government if Congress doesn’t approve a measure to keep it open by Dec. 21.
Trump wants the bill to include $5 billion in funding for his wall on the Mexican border, but Democrats have rejected that amount.
It’s not clear the bill can win a majority of the House with Democrats rejecting it, and it would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
House GOP leaders this week said they thought they could muscle it through the House after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is expected to be the Speaker in the next Congress, publicly dared Trump to try at a contentious White House meeting this week.
“If I needed the votes for the wall in the House, I would have them. In one session, it would be done,” Trump said.
Pelosi shot back, “Well, then go do it. Go do it.”
But there were questions about the wisdom of the strategy, since it would force some members to take tough votes on legislation that had no clear path to Trump’s desk even if it passed the House.
And there were also doubts about whether the GOP could win the votes, especially in a week where many members are absent.
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