The conservative House Freedom Caucus will not push for border wall funding as part of the expected stopgap funding bill next month, The Hill reports.
“In talking to a number of my members, if there was a vote for a continuing resolution next week that did not include border wall funding, the majority of those members would be supportive of that,” said the group’s chairman, Representative Mark Meadows in a Tuesday interview on ABC’s “Powerhouse Politic” podcast.
President Donald Trump said last week that he would shut down the government over funding for a wall along the border with Mexico, which was one of his central campaign promises.
Meadows’s position will be welcome news to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is under pressure to change the perception that Republicans are unable to govern, even as they control both chambers of Congress and the White House, The Hill comments.
However, the Freedom Caucus isn’t backing off its support for a showdown on the wall so much as postponing it. Government funding will run out at the end of September, and Congress is looking to deploy a three-month stopgap measure, a continuing resolution, to prevent a shutdown come October.
Meadows added that the additional time would allow Congress to continue fleshing out its spending bills for the 2018 fiscal year.
Be the first to comment