Heading to deal with less border money than he wants
By Sarah Westwood and Phil Mattingly, CNN
Updated 7:25 PM ET, Fri February 8, 2019
Washington (CNN)Republican and Democratic negotiators are exchanging border security proposals that contain far less funding for the border wall than President Donald Trump has demanded, with just days left before a deadline to release their bill ahead of another potential government shutdown.
The latest proposals peg the topline funding number for border barriers around $2 billion, according to two people familiar with the talks. That number is far below the $5.7 billion that Trump has requested and repeatedly described as the number he wants met, but is in line with where people familiar with the talks thought an agreement may end ...
A 2018 bipartisan Department of Homeland Security funding measure in the Senate allocated $1.6 billion for border barrier construction, and it restricted the type of barriers to fencing, bollard fencing and repairs to current barriers. The full Senate did not pass that measure, however, and the House did not consider it. Similar structural restrictions, which Democrats on the panel have said are paramount to any deal, are being discussed by negotiators in the current talks ...
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/politics/donald-trump-border-funding-lawmakers/index.html
