House Passes $788 Billion Spending Bill That Would Start Funding the Border Wall
- Plan would fund defense, energy, Congress, Corps of Engineers
- Current version of House plan has little chance in Senate
CAMPO, CA - OCTOBER 08: Dusk falls over a section of the US-Mexico border fence which activists opposing illegal immigration hope will be turned into a fully-lit double-fenced barrier between the US (foreground) and Mexico October 8, 2006 near Campo, California. US Fish and Wildlife Service wardens and environmentalists warn that a proposed plan by US lawmakers to construct 700 miles of double fencing along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border, in an attempt to wall-out illegal immigrants, would also harm rare wildlife. Wildlife experts say cactus-pollinating insects would fly around fence lights, birds that migrate by starlight in the desert wilderness would be confused, and large mammals such as jaguars, Mexican wolves, Sonoran pronghorn antelope, and desert bighorn sheep would be blocked from migrating across the international border, from California to Texas.
Photographer: David McNew/Getty ImagesThe House passed a $788 billion spending bill Thursday that complies with President Donald Trump’s demands to boost the military, reduce clean-energy programs and start funding a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill, passed 235-192, would fund the departments of Defense, Energy and Veterans Affairs, the legislative branch and Army Corps of Engineers in fiscal 2018. Republican leaders added $1.6 billion in border-wall funding to win the backing of House conservatives.