House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters Thursday that she would not agree to “some degree of wall funding” in exchange for a fix for "Dreamers" who are part of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“They’re two different subjects,” she emphasized at her weekly news conference.
Pelosi also said that she wants to see the Department of Homeland Security get funding in a continuing resolution through the remainder of fiscal 2019, which is until September 30th.
"I think what we can do that makes sense is to pass the six bills where the members of the Appropriations Committee have come to terms," she proposed. "The appropriators can come to a good conclusion and then have a CR only for homeland security as we go forward. And that's pretty much where our position is right now."
That would mean that the 2018 current level of $1.6 billion in funding for border security would remain and the partisan fight over a border wall would be delayed.
When asked by a reporter about the money within that border security funding for a border fence, Pelosi said, “well you’re talking about a fence, you’re not talking about a wall now.”
She called a border wall "immoral, ineffective, (and) expensive."
President Trump is pushing for $5 billion to fund the border wall.
A group of GOP senators introduced a bill Wednesday that aims to fully fund the border wall with $25 billion.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will meet with President Trump on Tuesday to discuss reaching a deal on funding for the border wall before the December 21st deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
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