House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted Thursday there will be no government shutdown and that funding for President Donald Trump's border wall likely won't be allocated until next year.
"We're not going to have a government shutdown," Ryan told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell during a pre-recorded interview for "CBS This Morning," while pointing out Trump also "doesn't want to have a government shutdown."
A continuing resolution that funds the government expires on April 28.
To help avoid a shutdown, Republicans plan to keep some of the more controversial items out of the funding bill, such as provisions for defunding Planned Parenthood or money to finance Trump's wall for the U.S.-Mexican border, Ryan said.
Ryan said the wall money would come during next year's finance appropriations, and that defunding Planned Parenthood would be easier to achieve through a bill going through a reconciliation process in the Senate.
There will be funding in the budget for the Department of Homeland Security for border security, he said, but "the big chunk of money for the wall, really, is in next year's appropriations because they literally can't start construction even this quickly."
Defunding Planned Parenthood, he continued, is in the Obamacare replacement bill, which "can't be filibustered," said Ryan.
Meanwhile, tax reform measures will be done as a collaborative effort between the House Finance Committee, Congress, and the White House, said Ryan, even though a spokesman has said the White House is driving the effort.
"I don't care who's driving," Ryan said, "as long as we get to an agreement and get it done."
Trump's tax plan and Ryan's are different, said O'Donnell, but he said the House plan is not really his, but a "House blueprint that every Republican ran on."
Ryan said he did help Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, on the plan.
Meanwhile, the speaker said he and Trump have a "very good" relationship and talk frequently — and that Trump apologized for his tweet last week urging followers to watch Judge Jeanine Pirro's Fox News program, when she demanded Ryan step down.
"He actually was very apologetic," said Paul. "He said, 'I had no idea she was going to talk about that. I thought she was going to talk about something else,' so it was really coincidental."
Trump thought Pirro was going to speak about Russia, which would be "interesting and favorable," and he had "no idea" she was going to slam him.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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