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US budget: No cash for Trump's wall in budget deal | |
(about 9 hours later) | |
Congress has struck a budget deal to avert a government shutdown, but it allocates no cash for President Donald Trump's proposed US-Mexico border wall. | |
The $1tr (£770bn) agreement to keep the US government running until 30 September was reached on Sunday night. | |
While there was no money for a wall, Republicans managed to secure $1.5bn in spending on border security. | |
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the package in the coming days. Full details are yet to be made public. | |
On Friday Congress approved a stop-gap spending bill that averted a government shutdown at midnight Saturday. | |
That gave Congress one more week to work out federal spending for the last five months of the fiscal year. | That gave Congress one more week to work out federal spending for the last five months of the fiscal year. |
The failure to act would have closed national parks and monuments and left hundreds of thousands of government employees without pay. | |
The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days. | The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days. |
What about Trump's wall? | |
White House demands for the spending bill to include a down payment on a barrier along the southern border have come to naught. | |
The $1.5bn for border security in the new budget comes with key caveats. | |
The Trump administration can only spend the money on repairs to existing fencing, infrastructure and technology, according to US media. | |
Nor has the administration succeeded in its plan to eliminate funding for so-called US sanctuary cities, which shelter undocumented immigrants. | |
However, Mr Trump insists he will still get money for his key campaign promise in a new spending bill this autumn. | |
The Republican president told a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night: "We'll build the wall, people, don't even worry about it." | |
What are the wins for Democrats? | |
Democrats say they torpedoed from the spending bill 160 policy measures, known as riders, that they labelled "poison pills". | |
According to reports, none of Mr Trump's calls for $18bn in non-defence cuts are included. | |
Democrats also fended off potential cuts to Planned Parenthood, a family-planning group abhorred by social conservatives because it provides abortions. | |
The 1,600-page spending bill reportedly gives retired coal miners $1.3bn in health benefits, a priority of two Democratic senators. | |
Democrats have also secured $295m to help Puerto Rico continue making payments to the Medicaid health insurance programme for the poor, and $100m to combat opioid addiction. | |
And New York Democrats secured $61m of funding to reimburse law enforcement agencies for the cost of protecting Mr Trump when he travels to his residences in Florida and New York. | |
Furthermore, the deal increases funding for the National Institutes of Health, despite the Trump administration's calls to reduce the medical research agency's budget. | |
Last week, Democrats also wrung from the White House a concession that the bill would not target subsidies paid to insurers to keep Obamacare costs down for low-income patients. | |
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren't used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison-pill riders, and increases investments in programs that the middle-class relies on." | |
Why are the wins for Trump? | |
President Trump has won $12.5bn in extra funding for defence spending. | |
However, that falls short of the $30bn sought by his budget blueprint. | |
The spending package would save him and congressional Republicans the embarrassment of presiding over a government shutdown. | |
"We couldn't be more pleased," US Vice-President Mike Pence said in an interview on CBS This Morning. | |
But Jim Jordan, chairman of the House of Representatives Freedom Caucus, said he and fellow hardline conservatives were "disappointed". | |
Republicans control the Congress, Senate and White House, but Democratic votes are still needed to pass the bill. |