Trump turns spending bill signing into must-see TV
President Trump threatens veto then signs omnibus spending bill; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.
President Trump signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill Friday despite an earlier threat to veto the legislation due to the lack of border wall funding and a fix for DACA.
Trump signed the mammoth legislation reluctantly, saying in a press availability with other members of the administration that, in order to secure a necessary increase in military spending, he had to give money to Democratic projects that he derided as a "wasted sum of money."
"It's not right and it's very bad for our country," he said.
But he said that military spending was very important, and that concern overrode his thoughts about vetoing the legislation.
“Therefore, as a matter of national security, I've signed this omnibus budget bill. There are a lot of things I’m unhappy about in this bill…But I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again. I'm not going to do it again,” he said.
He also called on Congress to end the filibuster in the Senate and to give him a line item veto.
“To prevent the omnibus situation from ever happening again, I'm calling on Congress to give me a line item veto for all government spending bills," he said. "And the Senate must end -- they must end -- the filibuster rule and get down to work.”
Trump had tweeted earlier Friday that he was considering using the veto, saying that recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program “have been totally abandoned by the Democrats.” He added that the border wall, which he said was "desperately needed for our National Defense" is not fully funded.
The House adjourned Friday morning until Monday, meaning that if Trump had vetoed the bill then the government would shut down.
Trump moved to end the DACA program in September, giving Congress a six-month window to come up with a legislative fix. That deadline has been delayed by court orders, but the fate of the 800,000 enrolled recipients is still uncertain.
Trump addressed DACA recipients at the press availability: "Republicans are with you," he said, before accusing Democrats of blocking efforts to fix DACA "every step of the way."
The White House has tried to use the DACA issue to convince Democrats to support approximately $25 billion in funding for Trump’s central campaign promise. But a congressional GOP source told Fox News talks broke drown after Democrats pushed for a path to citizenship to include also those who are currently eligible -- expanding those covered to 1.8 million.
The spending bill passed by Congress includes only $1.6 billion for border measures -- much of which is for repairs to already existing fencing. It explicitly rules out any new prototypes of the kind President Trump viewed this month in California. But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and the White House pushed back against conservative concerns on Thursday, saying it provided for 100 miles of border construction.
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FUNDING FOR BORDER WALL IN SPENDING BILL DIVIDES CONSERVATIVES, ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS
Democrats had claimed victory on the issue, pointing to the fact that Trump's requests for new deportation agents and detention center beds had gone unanswered, although they had expressed disappointment at the failure to get a DACA fix in the bill.
The deal has also irked more conservative members of Congress, who objected to the size and cost of the bill (which ran in at over 2,000 pages) as well as the failure to remove funding for Planned Parenthood and so-called "sanctuary cities." Other Republicans approved of the deal, pointing to a massive increase in military and infrastructure spending as well as funding to help combat the nation's opioid crisis.
Trump’s veto threat was totally unexpected, particularly as the White House had signaled Trump would support the bill if passed by Congress. Most lawmakers have already left Washington for a two week recess. Some are on overseas trips already.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.
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