The deal WILL contain money FOR some sort of additional border ‘barriers’…..
THAT will put Democrats on the spot from some of their supporters….
THAT is just gonna have to be…..
Democrats will try to keep the money level for the barrier below $2 billion , less than half of what Trump wanted for his steel wall….
It is uncertain what Democrats will get in immigration concessions in the deal….
In the end?
It’s gonna be if Republicans can sell Trump on going along and Democrats give the knucklehead a way to say he ‘won’ , even if he didn’t…..
Congressional negotiators say they’re close to reaching a deal to avert a shutdown, with Democrats acknowledging that a final compromise would include funding for border barriers — a concession that could spark rebellion within their party.
Lawmakers and aides, however, said Friday that the conference committee remains several days away from a final border security deal as top spending leaders continued to trade offers back and forth.
Negotiators technically have until Feb. 15 to reach an agreement to stave off another shutdown, but lawmakers insist the practical deadline for any agreement is much earlier in the week.
The current negotiations have narrowed to the most difficult of issues, with Democrats seeking to limit the number of detention beds for undocumented immigrants while Republicans are pushing for the highest funding level for barriers they can get.
But heading into Friday afternoon, an impasse continued over the dollar amount for border fencing or other barriers. Conservative lawmakers were insisting they and President Donald Trump would accept something around $2 billion — far below their insistence on $5.7 billion that triggered the shutdown in December. But Democrats quickly rejected that amount.
Most lawmakers left town Friday with few details about the state of talks, still referring to a deal as “if,” rather than “when.” Yet both parties remained adamant that the government would not shut down next Friday, eyeing another stopgap bill as a backup plan. Lawmakers from both parties have no appetite to shutter the government again after ending the longest shutdown in history just a few weeks ago.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, one of the GOP negotiators, said he is aiming for slightly more than $1.6 billion in fencing money, and signaled that Trump had backed off his demands for $5.7 billion.
“I think the political reality is, we can’t get to that,” Fleischmann said. “I think he understands that we’re operating under a divided government scenario and we’ve got to get the best deal that we can get.”
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) was upbeat after briefing Trump on the status of the negotiations Thursday. And Fleischmann said Friday he’s heard directly from White House officials that the administration is “much more encouraged” on the status of funding talks.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, one of the lead Democratic negotiators, conceded on Friday that a range of $1.6 billion to $2 billion for barriers “possibly could be workable.”……