More than half of the request is for a ‘steel barrier’ along the southwest border
The White House formally asked lawmakers Sunday to provide an additional $7 billion beyond what Senate appropriators proposed in their bipartisan Homeland Security spending bill last year, with more than half earmarked for a “steel barrier” along the southwest border.
The request, outlined in a letter from Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, doesn’t seem likely to lead to an immediate breakthrough in reopening large portions of the federal government that have been closed since Dec. 22.
At $5.7 billion for border barriers, or $4.1 billion more than the Senate’s fiscal 2019 bill, President Donald Trump proposes more than he’d requested earlier for a concrete wall. And the proposal reiterates some of Trump’s earlier requests rejected by Senate appropriators, including nearly $800 million to support 52,000 detention beds for immigrant detainees.