Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is signaling that members of the House Freedom Caucus, which he chairs, are willing to pass a Continuing Resolution to temporarily fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown, even if it does not include funding for a wall on the U.S. southern border.
“In talking to a number of my members, if there was a vote for a continuing resolution next week that did not include border wall funding, the majority of those members would be supportive of that,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told ABC News‘ Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein on the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.
This position is at odds with President Trump and the message Meadows sent during an interview with Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel.
“Last week, at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Trump suggested that he would allow a shutdown to occur if Congress does not include appropriations for his signature campaign promise as part of a funding measure,” ABC reported.
“Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” said Trump.
Meadows told Breitbart that it is imperative there be funding for President Donald Trump’s planned wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“It always helps to do what you said you were going to do and the president talked about the wall,” Meadows said. “He campaigned on that. Many of us supported that particular position — myself included. And so we’ve got that in the spending bill that’s coming out of the House. So the problem is going to be with the Senate and if we end up with a CR [continuing resolution] I don’t see a way that there is going to be money for a wall and that’s going to be problematic. So the Democrats are going to have to come to grips with fact that the president is serious with this and start negotiating in good faith. Right now they’re saying that’s there’s no amount of money that they would put for one of their special projects in order to fund the wall. I find that to be really not negotiating in good faith — but it’s a position that very, very difficult to hold. Everybody knows that from a national security standpoint we need to secure our southern border. And I’m in support of the president in that.”
Now, Meadows is supportive of passing a CR to fund the government with no wall funding.
“Meadows said he prefers a solution where government funding will continue through the rest of 2017, with a possible showdown involving the border wall not coming until December or January,” ABC reported. “He cited, in part, the need to keep government operations running in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.”
“Next week, in September, we are encouraging our leadership to go ahead and put a bill on the House floor and let us vote for that,” Meadows said. “Most of the conservatives that I talked to are willing to … vote for a continuing resolution that just basically would not have wall funding in it — would continue the current stream of money that keeps the government operational while we work through and negotiate on the appropriations bill.”
“While Meadows and other conservatives, including Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, voted against disaster relief packages after Hurricane Sandy slammed the Northeast in 2012, the North Carolina congressman said that those positions were in opposition to what those members considered to be unnecessary spending included in the legislation,” ABC reported. “He offered his support for Harvey relief after Congress can gauge the ‘full amount of the damage’ in the Gulf Coast.”
“When we have disaster relief a lot of times it becomes a vehicle for special spending,” Meadows said, adding, “As long as we keep the emergency relief really to support the people in need, whether they be in New York or Texas, I think you’ll find plenty of conservative support and certainly my support.”
(via: Breitbart)
