Top White House Advisor Stephen Miller met with Senate Republicans on Thursday to discuss enhancing border security funding in the “one big, beautiful bill” amid disagreements over how much money to funnel into the border.
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has widely advocated to slice the House-passed bill’s border funding from $150 billion to $75 billion, arguing the border can still be secured with less spending. However the budget resolution, which set limits for the massive bill, offered the committee up to $175 billion for border and homeland security measures, which was pushed by Miller in the meeting.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chair of the Senate Budget committee, as well as Paul are both expected to release separate border funding proposals, with Graham submitting his text to serve for the Homeland Security Committee’s portion of the bill.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a member of the Homeland Security committee, called the lack of specificity around the border funding numbers “frustrating,” but claimed it got “smoothed over very quickly” after Miller broke down the numbers behind his pitch for further funding.
“We’re very supportive of Stephen Miller. We appreciate the explanation. He’s an expert in the subject, he’s articulate. So he laid it out,” Johnson said. “There might’ve been a little misunderstanding up front, but we’re very supportive of what the president wants to do.”
Johnson was adamant he did not want to see lower funds for border security. He also noted there was uncertainty over how much border security would actually cost due to the “enormous mess left by Biden” during the open border.
The per-mile cost of the border wall’s construction will also be more than it was during President Donald Trump’s first administration, driving the higher levels of spending, the senator said.
“The first 450 miles they did in the last administration for $6.6 billion — that was replacing existing wall on land we already knew. This is going to be much more challenging, much more expensive for a number of different reasons,” Johnson told reporters.
When asked if he could see the border be secured with $75 billion, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, also on the Homeland Security committee said, “Not 75.”
“The president ran on this, it was his number one priority. Why would Senate Republicans cut it in a half? I just, I don’t understand it at all,” Hawley said. “I just, I gotta believe that we’ll fully fund the border. Like, I can’t imagine a world in which we don’t.”
Another member of the Homeland Security committee, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, vehemently disagreed that the border could be funded with $75 billion.
“Oh, no, we need the full funding for the border. Yeah, during the four years, because if we don’t get the money now, the Democrats will never give it to us later,” Moreno told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “So we get the border, the military, and the debt ceiling out of the way, so that we don’t get held hostage by lunatic Democrats.”
Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who dos not sit on the committee, gave similar remarks, arguing that the border had to be fully funded now.
“Try getting any more for the border from the Democrats after this point,” Tuberville told the DCNF.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said while he had not reviewed Paul’s $75 billion proposal in detail, he “fully supports adequate resources” to the southern border.
Johnson left the meeting in positive spirits, telling reporters he was prepared to deliver for the president.
“[Miller] did an excellent job. So, all said and done, it was a very worthwhile conversation,” Johnson said. “So again, we’re all satisfied.”
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