It doesn’t have any wall money.
It’s official: House and Senate negotiators have a deal to fund the government through September. And the Senate just overwhelmingly passed it, setting it up for a House vote later today.
Congressional lawmakers on Wednesday released the legislative text, which was put together by a special committee designated to figuring out a compromise on Homeland Security funding in the wake of a 35-day shutdown.
It doesn’t include any money for a concrete wall, though it does include $1.375 billion for physical barriers, funds which can be used for “bollard fencing.”
As Vox’s Dara Lind has previously explained, “bollard fencing” is made up of a series of “steel poles, erected close enough together to prevent entry but far enough apart that Border Patrol agents can see what’s happening on the other side.” It’s effectively the same as the “steel slats” that Trump has been touting interchangeably with a wall in recent months.
As a result, this agreement enables Democrats to say that they haven’t given in to Trump’s demands for a wall, while enabling Republicans to argue that they’ve provided Trump a “down payment” for the barriers he’s interested in building.
According to a congressional Democratic aide, the deal explicitly prohibits the use of this money on a concrete wall, and only authorizes funds for “existing technologies,” like the current fencing along the southern border. Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby, meanwhile, tweeted that he felt this agreement offered Trump a “down payment on his border wall.
