Trump Blasts Spending Bill With No Border Wall Funding

Trump Blasts Spending Bill With No Border Wall Funding

President Donald Trump accused Democratic lawmakers Thursday of blocking money for his proposed border wall in a spending bill and suggested his fellow Republicans were to blame for letting it happen.

"I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms?," Trump asked in a post on Twitter. "Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!"

The Senate approved an $854 billion spending bill Tuesday that averts a September 30 government shutdown and keeps the military and a number of civilian agencies running through early December.

But the bill, which the House is expected to approve next week, does not include funding for Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, defying Trump's threat to allow the government to shut down on October 1 if funding for the wall was not included. Republican congressional leaders have said their preference is to resolve the issue after the November 6 elections.

Another spending bill was approved last week and House and Senate negotiators are working on a separate measure that will fund several other civilian agencies, as well as the U.S. Treasury and federal courts. Together, the three compromise spending bills would account for nearly 90-percent of the federal government's annual spending.

Tuesday's Senate bill passage gives legislators more time to iron out details for next fiscal year's budget and avoids angering voters who could be cut off from federal services weeks before the November 6 midterm congressional elections.

Congressional passage of agency-level spending bills is a departure from the large spending packages that Congress approved in recent years that fund the entire government simultaneously.

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