GOP leaders: Bill to build wall will cost up to $15 billion
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 offered no 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 cancelled a planned meeting next week with Trump.
Congress will pay for “the construction of the physical barrier on the border,” Ryan said.