The GOP leadership in the U. S. House of Representatives has yielded to pressure from Donald Trump to include funding for a wall at the U. S.-Mexican border.
The House GOP leadership will include funding for a border structure on the southern border in the spending bill following pressure from President Donald Trump.
The president had informed Republican lawmakers he would not sign their spending bill unless it included funding for a border wall.
Republicans, however, do not appear to have the votes to get the bill through the Senate before funding for a near quarter of the government runs out on Dec. 21.
“I’ve made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include border security,” Trump said during a closed-door meeting with House Republican leaders at The White House.
The group told reporters afterwards they would try to amend a Senate-passed bill to add the $5 billion that Trump demanded to go toward building the border wall.
“We want to keep the government open but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said on The White House driveway after meeting with Trump for more than an hour.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement after the meeting, saying both Trump and the lawmakers “all feel strongly about border security—stopping the flow of drugs, stopping human trafficking, and stopping terrorism.
