The White House has said President Donald Trump expressed plans to delay his call for funds for the proposed U.S. border wall with Mexico in an effort to facilitate negotiations over a budget deal to avert a possible government shutdown, Reuters reported Monday.Richard Cowan and Steve Holland write Trump told media outlets in a private meeting that he may wait for lawmakers to start work on the budget request for fiscal 2018 to request funds for the planned border wall.
“Now the bipartisan and bicameral negotiators can continue working on the outstanding issues,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in a statement, the report added.
Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California)Â said Monday Congress could reach a budget deal by Friday if Trump stops demanding to include funds for the border wall in the budget package for the remaining months of fiscal 2017, according to a report by Joe Gould for Defense News.
Schumer told reporters in a joint conference call that Trump’s funding request for the wall “threw a monkey wrench†into negotiations over the spending package with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).
Pelosi noted that Democratic lawmakers will not back the passage of a short-term continuing resolution unless a deal is in place, the report added.
