Chuck Schumer Doubles Down On His Refusal To Add Funding For The Border Wall

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doubled down on his commitment not to provide additional funding for the border wall while he spoke on the Senate floor on Thursday.

“I want to be crystal clear — there will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall,” Schumer said. “It’s done.”

Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi got into a heated exchange with President Donald Trump on Tuesday while meeting in the Oval Office to see if they can agree upon a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and various other departments.

Congress previously passed legislation that would fund the federal government for two weeks in order to avert a shutdown. Trump has been facing threats, and even threatening, to shutdown the government in light of the funding bill’s Dec. 21 expiration.

While Trump has been demanding $5 billion to build a wall along the southern border, Schumer has been adamant in maintaining the 2018 levels of roughly $1.3 million. The New York senator cautioned Trump that Democrats would be willing to wait until they take back control of the House to pass a yearlong funding stopgap which would provide border funding at the level they see fit.

While speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer dismissed funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as “not a serious proposal” and called it a “throwaway idea” used to “fire up his base.”

Pelosi has also been vehemently opposed to a border wall, claiming that it would be “immoral, ineffective and expensive.”