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Does the Spending Bill Include Border Wall Funding?

<p>Congress on Wednesday unveiled a &dollar;1&period;3 trillion spending package that does not appear to include border wall funding or protections for Dreamers&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The omnibus spending bill does include &dollar;1&period;2 billion for border security and &dollar;641 million for fences and other obstacles&comma; but does not allow for the construction of a concrete wall or the implementation of new technology to help secure the border&period; The bill also lacks a measure to defund sanctuary cities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan don&rsquo&semi;t want a border wall&semi; they detest the idea of it&comma;&rdquo&semi; said one Congressional insider&period; &ldquo&semi;They are trying to sell the president on the idea they&rsquo&semi;ll fund it in another bill when they know that won&rsquo&semi;t happen&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bill includes more than &dollar;3&period;2 billion for infrastructure and railway projects and specifically allocates over &dollar;450 million for the Gateway tunnel&comma; a pet project of Senator Chuck Schumer&rsquo&semi;s &lpar;D-NY&rpar; that would connect New Jersey with New York City&period; Even with federal funding&comma; the Gateway tunnel will cost taxpayers some &dollar;30 billion to complete&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;It&rsquo&semi;s troubling when we get a tunnel and we don&rsquo&semi;t get a wall&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows &lpar;R-NC&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ohio Rep&period; Jim Jordan &lpar;R&rpar;&nbsp&semi;slammed the bill as the &&num;8220&semi;worst bill our leaders have ever allowed to come to the floor&comma;&&num;8221&semi; adding that it is &&num;8220&semi;not&&num;8230&semi;anywhere close to consistent to what we said we would do when they elected us in 2016&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Critics say the bill represents a lost opportunity for Trump&comma; who might not get another chance to secure funding for the border wall&period; It was also&nbsp&semi;the perfect opportunity for the Dems to enact legislative protections for Dreamers&period; But neither side would agree to the other&rsquo&semi;s demands&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;President Trump had an opportunity to deliver on two promises&period; One&comma; build the wall&period; Two&comma; to sign a &lsquo&semi;bill of love&rsquo&semi; for Dreamers&period; His desire to slash legal immigration and increase immigration enforcement makes delivering on these promises impossible&comma;&rdquo&semi; says Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum&period; &ldquo&semi;To put it another way&colon; Trump had two birds in hand&semi; now&comma; he&rsquo&semi;s got nothing&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 2&comma;232-page measure will likely be the last major bill to pass Congress this year&comma; and it is unlikely that either issue will be solved any time soon&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We have Dreamers that need to be taken care of&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Arizona Senator Jeff Flake &lpar;R&rpar;&period; &ldquo&semi;It&rsquo&semi;s the way for the White House to get what it wanted on the border&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> The media is all over the place on this&comma; some say it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t include any of the wall&comma; others say it covers 100 miles&period; Some say Trump&nbsp&semi;supports the bill&comma; others say he is angry&period; Personally I agree with Rush Limbaugh&&num;8217&semi;s comment&comma; that Trump will not sign a bill that does not include the wall&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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