U.S. Sen. John Hoeven is one of 17 lawmakers on a conference committee tasked with ensuring the government remains fully funded and open for the rest of the fiscal year.
President Donald Trump signed a bill last week to temporarily end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which left at least 800,000 federal employees without pay. The 35-day shutdown ended Friday.
The agreement will last until Feb. 15, as Trump will continue pushing for federal dollars to build a physical wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Hoeven, R-N.D., will meet Wednesday with other Senate and U.S. House members of the conference committee for Homeland Security Appropriations. Monday, he said the committee's goal is to fully fund the federal government until this fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Congress and the president have yet to agree on how to fund 25 percent of the federal government. That includes homeland security, for which the president has repeatedly sought border wall funding.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The objective is to make sure we get border security funding, which consists of people, technology and a barrier, all three," said Hoeven. "And then that agreement would enable us to pass the remaining appropriations bill."
Hoeven, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he and professionals from U.S. Customs and Border Protection have put a lot of time into developing a three-pronged national security plan. That's why he supports efforts to develop a physical barrier, he said.
"You need (a wall) to secure the border," he said. "Border security is part of national security, and to properly secure the border you need all three. You need people, advanced technology-which includes unmanned aerial systems (drones)-and you need a barrier. And that comes right from the professionals. That's what Customs and Border Protection says it needs and it wants."
A proposal Trump offered legislators on Jan. 19 asked for $5.7 billion toward building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Some of those dollars, the Trump administration said, would also cover existing portions of barrier along the border.
In an effort to concede to previous funding proposals that had excluded the wall, Trump's compromise offered funding and medical support for the border's humanitarian crisis. It also offered three years of temporary relief to qualified Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and those covered by Temporary Protected Status.
"No one wants a shutdown," Hoeven said. "The objective is to come up with a good solution."
