And just like that, Republicans are putting back the 5 billion in border security into the funding bill:
REUTERS – A top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, said on Thursday that lawmakers in his chamber would move to add $5 billion for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall to a short-term funding bill, as they race to avert a partial government shutdown.
Scalise said the Republican-led House would attach the border wall money as an amendment to short-term funding legislation coming from the Senate. He said it would also add funds for disaster aid.
Amendments require a vote from the House, which could make timing tight as current funding ends at Friday midnight.
The chairman of the Rules Committee, Republican Pete Sessions, said the committee would meet later on Thursday to determine how to move forward on adding the $5 billion, and said he did not know if Trump would sign a measure into law that lacked the funding.
“We’re all putting that in the calculator,” Sessions told reporters off the House floor.
Legislation must first be approved by the committee before going to the full chamber for a vote.
If the House can muster the votes to pass it, then it will have to go back to the Senate.
I would hope the Senate would consider budget reconciliation to get the funding passed by a simple majority. But honestly, I don’t know what the rules are and if that’s even a possibility.
But at this point it still has to get out of committee and pass the House, and I’m not sure where that stands in terms of votes.
UPDATE:
Ted Cruz notes correctly that they wouldn’t be in this pickle if they’d simply passed wall funding via reconciliation.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) December 20, 2018