President Trump said Thursday that he will not sign a temporary spending bill over its lack of funding for the construction of a border wall.
“The president informed us he will not sign the bill,” House speaker Paul Ryan told reporters outside the White House after he met with Trump.
“We have very serious concerns about securing our border. The president said, ‘I will not sign this bill.’ So we’re going to go back and work on adding border security to this,” Ryan said.
The White House confirmed Ryan’s remarks in a statement.
“We protect nations all over the world, but Democrats are unwilling to protect our nation,” read a statement from White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “We urgently need funding for border security and that includes a wall.”
Democrats and Republicans have been in gridlock the past few weeks over the $5 billion Trump is requesting in the new spending bill for border-wall construction, a proposal Democrats oppose and have refused to budge on. Democrats have capped the level of border-security funding that they will approve at $1.6 billion.
The continuing resolution Trump has said he will not sign was meant to delay the fight over border wall funding until February 8.
“When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries — but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!” the president wrote on Twitter.
The government is scheduled to partially shut down on Friday when funding runs out for several departments, including Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, State, Interior, Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, and Justice.
Conservatives, including members of the Freedom Caucus, caused an uproar this week when it looked like Trump would agree to the continuing resolution that keeps border wall funding flat, encouraging him to stick to his guns on the issue.