By Kristina Peterson, Natalie Andrews and Laura Meckler
WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders said they were nearing a
final deal Wednesday morning over a spending bill that would fund
the government until October, wrapping up the final stretch of
talks that had delayed a deal for several days.
The top four congressional leaders left a meeting Wednesday
saying they had to work out some details but expected the spending
bill to be completed soon. Leaders from both parties said they felt
confident about the underlying agreement.
"We feel really good about where things are," House Speaker Paul
Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters. "We expect to post something very
soon."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) expressed similar
confidence.
"There are a few more details to be worked out. We hope they'll
be done in the next few hours," Mr. Schumer said. "We're feeling
very good about this."
Aides had worked around the clock Monday and Tuesday to
negotiate the spending bill, with time dwindling this week. The
government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Lawmakers and President Donald Trump agreed to the bill's $1.3
trillion funding level last month as part of a two-year budget
deal. But they spent weeks wrestling with the details of how to
divvy it up across federal agencies. Should the bill be finalized
later Wednesday, lawmakers would have to sprint to pass it through
both chambers to avoid what would be the third partial government
shutdown of the year.
Although a deal hadn't been completed early Wednesday, more of
its contents were emerging. One of the most contentious issues had
been whether Congress would provide funds to deliver on Mr. Trump's
promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Democrats
have opposed building a physical wall but supported beefing up
border security.
The spending bill is expected to allocate $1.57 billion for
border fencing and some related spending on the southwest border,
according to two people familiar with the details. That includes
$641 million for 33 miles of new border fencing and levee walls,
which are spans of concrete with bollard fencing on top. That is
about half the 60 miles of new barriers Mr. Trump had
requested.
The compromise gives the administration more than it asked for
in replacement fencing -- a total of $696 million for about 60
miles, including 14 miles of replacement fencing that the president
requested. Both new and replacement barriers must use existing
technology, one person said, which would rule out the sort of solid
concrete wall that some have envisioned.
The bill also includes a separate technology fund of about $1.2
billion that would pay for road construction at the border, hiring
new border agents and other border security measures.
The spending bill won't include any provisions cutting off
federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities, cities and other
jurisdictions with policies in place limiting local cooperation
with federal immigration authorities, two people said. The bill
does not fund additional interior enforcement agents with the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency requested by Mr. Trump,
though the people familiar said there would be more ICE agents for
other tasks.
Congressional leaders were likely to include funding to
strengthen election security to thwart Russian meddling in
November's midterm elections. The bill is expected to boost the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's funding for counter-intelligence
efforts to fight Russian cyberattacks by $307 million and provide
an additional $380 million for election technology grants to
states.
That is far short, however, of the more than $3 billion that
Congress provided to state and local governments to upgrade and
modernize their election infrastructure after the 2000 election,
when a final result was delayed by troubles counting ballots in
Florida.
GOP leaders have focused on the boost the spending bill would
provide to the military. Under the budget agreement reached last
month, funding for the military will be increased by $80 billion
this fiscal year over spending limits set in 2011, although
Congress has regularly agreed to lift federal funding since
then.
"This is really about how we build the 21st century military,"
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters Tuesday. "We have
21st century threats, and our men and women in uniform need to be
equipped and prepared to deal with these threats."
Democrats, meanwhile, have emphasized the $63 billion boost
domestic spending would get. The funding would go to help combat
the opioid epidemic, fund medical research and infrastructure
investments, among other provisions.
The bill is expected to include $2.8 billion for treatment,
prevention and research into opioids.
The spending bill "follows through, as you know, on the
bipartisan budget deal we struck in February," Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told reporters Tuesday. "And for
the first time in a long time, will robustly fund our military and
provide substantial investments in our middle class."
The bill is expected to exclude some of the most contentious
policy provisions, including an effort from Republicans to strip
federal funding from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a
women's health organization that provides abortion services.
Congressional leaders had agreed last month to boost
infrastructure spending by $20 billion over two years. In this
spending bill, lawmakers are expected to direct $600 million to
develop new high-speed broadband, provide $1 billion more to an
airport-improvement program and lift spending for the Federal
Highway Administration and Federal Railroad Administration.
The Census Department is expected to get a $1.3 billion increase
over last year's level.
The House was still expected to vote on the bill Thursday,
forcing lawmakers to waive their normal requirements for how long a
bill must be public before voting on it. Once the House has passed
the spending bill, it would go to the Senate, where any one senator
can block the chamber from speeding up its time-consuming
procedures, as Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) did last month on the
budget deal.
"We all know that we've got a hard stop on Friday, and the
closer you get to Friday, the more worried people become," said
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), a member of the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
--Byron Tau contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com, Natalie
Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at
laura.meckler@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 21, 2018 11:43 ET (15:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.