PHILADELPHIA—Congress will move legislation this year providing up to $15 billion to build a wall along the Mexican boundary, Republican leaders said Thursday. But they would not say how they'd prevent the massive project from worsening federal deficits, and were meeting resistance from GOP lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at a GOP strategy retreat that they were planning legislation providing $12 billion to $15 billion for constructing the wall, one of President Donald Trump’s chief goals. Ryan said the goal is to complete that and other major bills in 2017, but the leaders have not yet offered details on how the wall would be paid for, saying they would wait until the Trump administration proposes legislation.
Trump has repeatedly said Mexico will pay for the wall, but Mexico opposes it and has said it won’t finance it. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday canceled a planned meeting next week with Trump.
Congress will pay for “the construction of the physical barrier on the border,” Ryan said.
“We intend to address the wall issue ourselves,” said McConnell.
Pressed on whether construction would increase federal deficits, Ryan said Republicans are fiscal conservatives. He said strengthening the economy and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care system were two of the best ways to bolster the government’s budget.
“If we’re going to be spending on things like infrastructure, we’re going to find the fiscal space to pay for that” in a budget Congress plans to write this spring, Ryan said.
One influential GOP senator who’s clashed with Trump since last year’s campaign expressed likely opposition to the plan.
“I’m not inclined to support it,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters.
McCain said he'd await details from Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly. He said such a plan should be “encompassing, it’s got to be coherent” with technology including drones.
