Budget Bill Provides Border Security, Paul Ryan Says

A $1.3 trillion spending bill proposed by congressional leaders provides the budget requests sought by the Trump administration for border security House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted Thursday, answering criticism being voiced by the measure's opponents.

"Do you know how long the funding bill lasts?" the Wisconsin Republican asked Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

"Six months. This is not a 10-year bill, it's six months. What we did in this bill, we funded in the next six months exactly the budget requests the administration asked us for the border."

The bill, which has a deadline of Friday at midnight, has the "exact same funding for the border in this bill [that] we funded back in September, with all Republican votes. So it is kind of interesting people are sort of saying different things now."

Ryan further said that the Trump administration asked for funding for 74 miles of border wall funding, but the new bill, despite the complaints about it, funds 100 miles.

"We actually exceeded what the administration asked us for for the border," said Paul. "Here is the deal on the border. We asked the Border Patrol, what do you need on the border? What they tell us is, the conditions on the ground determined what kind wall they wanted, different places."

In some locations, such as in the Rio Grande Valley, a concrete barrier with a fence on top is what's needed, so it doesn't get washing away in floods, said Ryan, while in the desert, "they want a see-through wall, so we did that."

The measures were taken, said Ryan, because Republicans "don't want to wait until we can get a multiyear [budget] passed.

Instead, the wall will be funded "one year at a time," said Ryan.

Meanwhile, there was language in the proposed legislation for mass transit funds, but it was written in such a way that New York alone would get the money, said Ryan.

The spending bill does provide more than $1.2 billion for border security enhancements, including high-tech surveillance systems, as well as some $641 million for over 30 miles of new fences and border-crossing obstacles.

"You need fences," said Ryan. "You need cameras. You need electronic devices. You need aerial devices to be able to police it. In the mountainous areas you can't build a wall over a mountain. You need cameras and you need drones up there. It is a border wall system that the border patrol tells us they need."

Meanwhile, the bill also includes the biggest increase in military spending in 15 years, including the largest pay raise for members in the past eight years, said Ryan.

"We need to rebuild the military," Ryan said. "We lost four times as many people in training accidents last year than we did combat. Why? Obama short-changed the military. This is the Trump-Jim Mattis budget for the military."

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