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According to last two people, the amount of funding for border barriers rising to about $ 2 billion, according to two people aware of the discussions. This figure is well below the $ 5.7 billion that Trump has asked for and repeatedly described as the number he wants to meet, but it is consistent with the points on which regulars in the talks thought the deal might end.
Meanwhile, Conservative legislators on the House Freedom Caucus board met Thursday at the White House with Trump to discuss funding for border security, a source said close to the debate. GOP representatives Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan attended the meeting, which the source said was productive. Members of the Freedom Caucus were among the Conservatives who urged Trump in December to close the government if he could not secure maximum funding at this level.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican who is a member of the conference committee who touted the progress of the talks to reporters on Friday, said the GOP speakers insisted on a figure of over $ 2 billion.
"I want as many people as I can, but Mr. Fleischmann hoped it would be north of ($ 2 billion)," a Senate funding measure for the bipartisan Homeland Security Department in 2018 said. $ 1.6 billion for the construction of border gates. fencing and repairs to existing barriers. The full Senate did not adopt this measure and the House did not consider it. Negotiators discussed the same structural restrictions, which the group's democrats say are essential to any deal in the ongoing negotiations.
Fleischmann is part of a handful of lawmakers invited by Mick Mulvaney, Chief of Staff of the White House, to meet. the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat. White House aides described the meeting as a bipartisan meeting, and not as an attempt to intervene in the Capitol Hill spending talks. Democratic representatives Henry Cuellar, Peter Welch and John Yarmuth are also planning to attend the meeting, according to their aides.
Trump also met on Thursday with Republican Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the Credit Committee, to discuss the state of border negotiations. financing of security. Senator Lindsey Graham, a key GOP ally with Trump, also told reporters that he expected to meet with the President on Thursday, highlighting Trump's growing commitment to a problem that he has left out of Congress since the end of the government's closure two weeks ago.
Just last week, Trump had criticized the conference talks as a waste of time, but those who met him on Thursday described the president as optimistic about the prospects for an agreement. .
White House staff express a growing sense of optimism about legislators' willingness to avoid a new halt – a change in tone from the beginning of the The administration expected Trump to declare a national emergency or resort to another form of management action to try to tap into existing federal funds.
exactly the president would be favorable remains uncertain. While some contributors suggest that he is likely to support an agreement that finances the wall to less than $ 5.7 billion when he leaves the conference, Trump himself has not yet indicated he would waive his request, and similar efforts to make compromises on the price. from his wall collapsed before.
