During the election, there was a lot of talk about the border wall, who would pay for it, and why we needed it. But now, President Donald Trump’s signature proposal is a giant step closer to being realized.
There have been some major developments in the budget approval for the wall. In fact, just last week, it was announced that the House Appropriations Committee approved the full amount requested by President Trump for the wall – a total of $1.6 million. This was announced by the President in standard Trump fashion: with a tweet.
The president tweeted about it on July 12th right before he left to visit Paris for Bastille Day. In the tweet, he said that this was a big win for our country and now it is up to the House and the Senate to take action. Because of how he tweeted it, saying it was a big win, it has not gotten a lot of press coverage in mainstream media. Instead, they have been focused on the Russian collision stories.
Every year, there is a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that needs to be passed by Congress. This bill details the budget for a variety of things, and this new approval will be part of the 2018 fiscal year bill. This spending bill went through the House on Tuesday, and approved funding for the first wall plan for the border between the United States and Mexico.
The funding requested was $1.6 billion, and all of that was moved forward without much to do. The House Appropriations Committee released the plan on Tuesday, and then a subcommittee chose to move it forward on Wednesday as well.
Chairman John Carter of the subcommittee praised the bill by stating, “Keeping Americans safe by protecting our homeland is a top priority. This funding bill provides the resources to begin building a wall along our southern border, enhance our existing border security infrastructure, hire more border patrol agents, and fund detention operations.”
The bill that has been approved is not just a request for funding, however. It also details a plan for that money and what it will do to help start the process for the building of the wall. The spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) commented on this fact by stating, “On the DHS side it’s clear that we’ve gotten a direction to secure the southern border, that a wall and barrier is part of that process along with people and technology and that funding from Congress is required for us to move forward on that.”
The entire bill allocates a total of $13.8 billion towards customs and border protection. This total includes the $1.6 billion that is being requested. Beyond that, there is $100 million designated for hiring 500 more border patrol agents, $106 million for sensors and aircraft, $131 million to invest and purchase new border technology, and even $109 million for inspection equipment that is non-intrusive. This shows that there is a huge push not only towards building the wall, but also towards bulking up border protection in general between the United States and Mexico.
This is just another spurt of good news from the White House. Although many on the other side do not want to talk about how much President Trump has been doing since he took office, he has had much more momentum than we have seen in a presidency in many many terms.
This is just another of his campaign promises that is coming to fruition. However, it does not take into account for the pledge he made that Mexico would pay for the wall, and is something that the other side may harp on.
~ Conservative Zone
