My highest duty is to keep America safe,” Trump told reporters. “We
need to take care of our military … As a matter of national security,
I’ve signed this omnibus budget bill. There’s a lot of things that I’m
unhappy about in this bill.”
He added that “in a sense we were forced”, describing the rushed
nature of the negotiations on Capitol Hill as “a ridiculous situation”.
The 2,232-page bill was released to lawmakers hours before it passed the
House and Senate on Thursday, a day before the shutdown deadline.
The bill takes some actions on gun control and the opioids crisis but
does not include protections for young undocumented migrants brought to
the country as children, known as Dreamers and previously protected
under an Obama-era executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals or Daca.
Trump sought to blame Democrats. “The Republicans are with you,” he
said. “The Democrats fought every single inch of the way. They did not
want Daca in this bill … Republicans are much more on your side than the
Democrats, who are using you for your own purposes.”
She went on: “Speaker Ryan has failed to live up to his promise to
bring a Daca solution to the floor, and we will continue to press him to
give us a vote to protect Dreamers.”
The bill passed the House 256-167 and the Senate by 65-32. Trump
called for the Senate to remove its filibuster rule, to allow
legislation to advance by a simple majority of 51 votes, and for
Congress to give him a line-by-line veto of future budgets to prevent a
repeat situation.
The budget passed the House and Senate despite opposition from groups
on the right and left. Without new funding the federal government would
have been partially shut down, a third such closure in months.
The bill’s $1.6bn for border security is not authorized to be used on the wall prototypes Trump recently viewed in California.
Trump’s presidential campaign made building a wall a signature issue,
the candidate repeatedly promising that Mexico would pay for it.
“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill,” Trump wrote
in his Friday morning tweet, “based on the fact that the 800,000 plus
DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even
mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for
our National Defense, is not fully funded.”
Trump examines border wall prototypes in California – video
Daca was canceled by Trump in September. However, litigation has kept protection for many Dreamers in place. Trump rejected a deal with Democrats that would have protected Dreamers in exchange for $25bn for his wall.
Trump sought to blame Democrats. “The Republicans are with you,” he
said. “The Democrats fought every single inch of the way. They did not
want Daca in this bill … Republicans are much more on your side than the
Democrats, who are using you for your own purposes.”
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