WASHINGTON \u2014 President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s transition team has signaled to congressional Republican leaders that the President-elect\u2019s preference is to fund the border wall through the appropriations process as soon as April, according to House Republican officials.
The move would break a key campaign promise when Trump repeatedly said he would force Mexico to pay for the construction of the wall along the border.
The Trump team argues it will have the authority through a Bush-era 2006 law to build the wall, lawmakers say, but it lacks the money to do so. Transition officials have told House GOP leaders in private meetings they\u2019d like to pay for the wall in the funding bill, a senior House GOP source said.
\u201cIt was not done in the Obama administration, so by funding the authorization that\u2019s already happened a decade ago, we could start the process of meeting Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign pledge to secure the border,\u201d Indiana Republican Rep. Luke Messer said on Thursday.
Messer admitted it\u2019s \u201cbig dollars, but it\u2019s a question of priorities.\u201d He pointed to a border security bill that Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul proposed last year that cost roughly $10 billion.
\u201cDemocrats may well find themselves in the position to shut down all of government to stop the buildout of a wall, or of a barrier, or of a fence,\u201d Messer said.
If Mexico refuses to pay for the wall the GOP could add billions of dollars into the spending bill that needs to pass by April 28 to keep the government open. But doing so would force a showdown with Senate Democrats and potentially threaten a government shutdown.
No decisions have been made, GOP sources said.
Republicans point out that then-Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Chuck Schumer and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton voted for the 2006 bill and argued that since Democrats backed that bill, they should support efforts to fund the current effort.
The thinking behind the strategy is that it is harder for Democrats to filibuster spending bills because of the high stakes involved if they fail to pass in time.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership, declined to say Thursday if Congress would pay for the wall.
\u201cWe want President Trump to have all the tools he needs to build the wall,\u201d Scalise said. \u201cWe\u2019re in talks with him on the details of it as they\u2019re still putting together their team. We still got a few months before there\u2019s another funding bill that\u2019s going to move. We\u2019re going to work with him to make sure we can get it done. We want to build a wall. He wants to build a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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