The new Democratic-held House of Representatives in the United States passed legislation on Thursday night to end a partial government shutdown, CNBC reported.
However, President Donald Trump has vowed not to sign the measures passed by the House as they do not include money for his proposed border wall. Last week, Trump threatened to close the country’s southern border with Mexico if Democrats did not agree to his demand for funds to build the wall. The US Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans, has decided not to pass the House proposal.
The first measure passed by the House was a stopgap bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security at its current funding levels until February 8. This is an attempt at postponing the fight on the wall to next month, CNN reported. The second measure consists of six spending bills to reopen and fully fund parts of government until September 30, the end of the fiscal year, without allocating money for the proposed wall.
“The people of our country want it [the wall],” the US president claimed on Thursday. “I have never had so much support, as I have in the last week, over my stance for border security, for border control and for, frankly, the wall or the barrier. I have never had anything like it in terms of calls coming in, in terms of people writing in and tweeting, and doing whatever they have to do.”
The Trump administration has called for at least $5 billion for the wall. The president “cannot accept legislation that provides unnecessary funding for wasteful programs while ignoring the Nation’s border security needs”, the administration wrote in a statement.
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