As the Trump administration moves closer to a Friday spending bill deadline, White House officials have expressed confidence that a government shutdown will likely be avoided — even if it means putting off funding a border wall.
President Trump may sign off on an agreement that would include money for border security, allocating funds to border agents and technology rather than the promised (and highly controversial) physical wall. Though Trump has been praised for his flexibility, Rep. Bill Keating believes the president’s spirit of compromise was the result of a forced hand.
“Republicans in the House said ... we’re not going to let the government shut down, if we’re going to put a bill on your desk, it’s not going to have this in it, and you can choose to veto that or not,” Keating said in an interview with Boston Public Radio Tuesday. “He didn’t want to be that position.”
Some Democrats have agreed to allocate budget funds to border security, as long as those funds won’t go towards building a wall. According to Keating, the wall is generally viewed in the House as an improbable and archaic option.
“It’s viewed by most members — the Republicans probably would be less vocal about this, although some have spoken out publicly — what a waste of money this is, with no security benefit as a byproduct,” Keating said. “It’s just a political trophy, which I think that’s the view of most of the members of the House as a whole, including both sides.”
“The truth is, we live in a modern time,” Keating continued. “I’ve been briefed in classified sessions, as many members have — anyone that really wants to be briefed on it — on what we’re doing for security along those borders. And we’re doing a great deal — we’re dealing with it the way that a modern-day perimeter would be set up in a military kind of setting. That’s already in place.”
Though Trump has expressed confidence that the border wall will eventually be built — going as far as to ask Congress for $1.5 billion in new money to begin construction — Keating says Trump’s leniency is a sign that this plan may never come to fruition.
“I think it’s just a reality check that that wasn’t going to happen, more than anything else,” Keating said.
To hear Rep. Bill Keating’s full interview with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio player above.
