Lawmakers reacted with concern and bewilderment after President Trump again declared that a border security compromise would have to include a wall at the southwestern border.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump proclaimed on Thursday that without funding for his wall at the southwestern border, the panel of lawmakers negotiating a broad compromise on border security would be \u201cwasting their time,\u201d issuing what appeared to be an ultimatum even as lawmakers pleaded for a chance to reach a deal that would head off another shutdown.
\u201cWithout a wall, it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cI\u2018m not saying this as a Republican, I\u2019m not saying it as anything other than a fact stater.\u201d
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have a wall,\u201d he added, \u201cthey\u2019re all just wasting their time.\u201d
The president\u2019s comments came as 17 House and Senate lawmakers from both parties struggled to reach a bipartisan border deal before Feb. 15, when much of the government again runs out of money. Republican leaders, especially in the Senate, have made it clear that they do not want to suffer through another debilitating shutdown, and senators asked the president to give them room to work.
\u201cI think it would be more worthwhile and effective if the president would allow some space for these negotiations to occur and not be doing commentary at this point,\u201d said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
Democrats offered their own opinions on Thursday: In her weekly news conference, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that \u201cthere\u2019s not going to be any wall money\u201d in a final bill. Four House Democrats, all freshmen, circulated a letter lobbying for cuts to the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s budget, urging colleagues to \u201cnot compromise our values at the negotiating table.\u201d
But it was the president\u2019s commentary throughout the day on Thursday, on Twitter and in the Oval Office, that prompted several lawmakers to plead for him to tone down his messaging.
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the negotiating group, known as a conference committee, asserted that without outside reaction \u2014 not just from the president, but other \u201coutside forces\u201d \u2014 a solution could be reached within days.
\u201cIf the speaker, the president and everybody, the leaders of our parties in the Senate, would let us, the appropriators, do our job, we could do this,\u201d Mr. Shelby said.
Democrats released formal details on Thursday of their opening bid in negotiations, outlining nearly $56 billion in spending for the Department of Homeland Security without any mention of walls or fencing. The proposal also blocks the construction of physical barriers on wildlife refuges on the border, the only mention of such barriers.
Ms. Pelosi signaled that she would be open to allocating money for roads, ports of entry and infrastructure and technology at the southwestern border \u2014 all things that she said were \u201cpart of the negotiation.\u201d
\u201cThey have to choose the best way to use the money,\u201d she said of the committee, adding that a bipartisan consensus could hopefully be reached without outside interference.
But the president, who has vacillated between hard-edge demands for border wall funding and a softer tone on alternatives to a wall, returned to his hard-line posture that a wall had to be included in a final bill. He repeated his false claim that construction of new expanses of border wall had already begun.
The tone of Mr. Trump\u2019s remarks, coupled with a string of morning tweets, prompted a mixture of bewilderment and concern among lawmakers trying to reach a deal but unsure of what the president will sign.
\u201cI do think the president\u2019s tweet underscores the single most important question as to whether this negotiation can be successful: how free the Republicans are to negotiating in good faith and to what extent they can proceed to do that,\u201d said Representative David E. Price, Democrat of North Carolina and a member of the negotiating committee.
A path to a final compromise on border security and funding the Department of Homeland Security \u201cstill appears uncertain because of what he said and because of how he operates,\u201d Mr. Price said in an interview.
For some lawmakers, the president\u2019s assessment about the success of the negotiations was simply realistic.
\u201cI think the president is saying something that a lot of people are already thinking,\u201d said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana. \u201cThis may well be a waste of time, and I think the president may turn out to be right.\u201d
\u201cWe also could surprise ourselves around here and do something intelligent,\u201d he added. \u201cYou just never know.\u201d
But some lawmakers remained optimistic that a deal could be reached before Feb. 15, with the president\u2019s approval. The scope of the bill is likely to be narrow to maintain consensus, without the addition of immigration law changes or the inclusion of a measure to raise the government\u2019s statutory borrowing limit.
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go there. We want to keep it simple,\u201d said Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana and a member of the committee. \u201cI think we have to keep it simple and clean.\u201d
Other members of the committee, including Mr. Shelby, have also raised the possibility of bringing in experts to outline what exactly is needed at the border.
\u201cI think we can still get there,\u201d said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia who sits on the conference committee. \u201cMaybe it won\u2019t be the terminologies \u2014 it might be barriers or fencing or levies or things of this nature \u2014 but I think we need to listen to the professionals, and the professionals are telling us we need more barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n