Not in the legislation so far it seems…
Back pay for contractors who went payless for the 35 day Trump border wall government shutdown…
Much Less numbers of detentions for ICE to be able to do….
Extension of Violence Against Women Act….
DACA/Dreamers protections…
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding (Food Stamps)…
…..After two days of frenetic closed-door talks, negotiators hoped to unveil the giant spending compromise before midnight Wednesday.
The House will vote no earlier than Thursday around 6:30 p.m. after lawmakers return from the funeral services for Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.).
The Senate could decide to go first, approving the bill Thursday afternoon. Both Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have given their endorsements.
Several big sticking points in the negotiations had held up the bill’s release, including how to extend the expiring Violence Against Women Act and whether to include back pay for federal contractors affected by the 35-day government shutdown.
Ultimately, Republican and Democratic leaders decided to exclude the extra items, allowing the act to expire and leaving federal contractors in flux.
On VAWA, McConnell claimed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was “objecting to a modest extension”, adding, “This authority will expire this Friday. Republicans believe that we should follow standard procedure and extend this important legislation through the end of this fiscal year, which is about seven months.”
Democrats countered that McConnell and the White House are objecting to pay for federal contractors, a big issue for Democrats.
The most important question still centers on whether Trump will support the deal. Facing a barrage of questions from their conference, House GOP leaders said Trump has indicated that he would sign the package — giving cover to some Republicans skeptical of a deal that has been lambasted by conservative commentators.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday night that he‘d spoke with Trump and described the deal as a “down payment“ on the border wall.
“I just talked to the President, and he was in good spirits,“ Shelby wrote on Twitter. “This is only the beginning of a multi-year effort.“
Among progressive Democrats, there was some angst on Wednesday about providing $1.3 billion for border barriers. But none seemed keen on tanking the deal and forcing a shutdown for which Democrats could be blamed…..
….Republican and Democratic leaders are also going around to their members and selling the agreement as a win for their side when the truth is a bit more drawish.
No, President Donald Trump does not get money for a concrete wall ― or even as much money as Senate appropriators were discussing in the spring for physical barriers ― but the deal does include $1.375 billion for “bollard fencing.” If you don’t know what bollard fencing is, it sort of looks like a massive steel wall.
Democrats will be able to tout that the bill explicitly blocks Trump from using that fencing in certain areas, and that Trump can only use wall designs that are currently in use, and that Trump only gets 55 miles of new fencing. But Democrats are coming off of their position that $0 ought to go to a physical barrier.
Trump will get to stand in front of the new fencing and point to it as his wall, and he’ll still be able to declare a national emergency and try to raid other accounts for more wall money. There are no policy riders in the bill blocking Trump from that gambit, though such a move will almost certainly get tied up in the courts.
“Regardless of who’s actually winning on the policy, Democrats are almost certainly winning on the politics….”
One of the most complicated issues in the deal is the number of detention beds at the border. If you listen to Democrats, the deal will reduce the number of detention beds to 40,520, which is the number Congress previously agreed to. But, if you talk to Republicans, the legislation actually removes the cap and funds an average of 45,274 beds, according to Vox. A senior Democratic aide told HuffPost that there are currently 49,057 beds in use, so even though lawmakers are funding more than what they previously authorized, that’s just to provide for a “glide path” to get to the mandated limit.
The truth is, we might not know exactly what these provisions do until we see the legislative text ― and even then, the Trump administration could find a way to work around the law…