House committee approves $10 billion initial payment for U.S.-Mexico border wall

House committee approves $10 billion initial payment for U.S.-Mexico border wall

The House Homeland Security Committee gave first approval to the broad scope of President Trump’s border wall Wednesday, clearing a bill that would authorize $10 billion in new infrastructure spending, new waivers to speed up construction and 10,000 more border agents and officers to patrol the U.S.-Mexico line.
Democrats vehemently opposed the bill, saying the wall was a boondoggle and the fact that U.S. taxpayers will fund it violates the president’s campaign pledge to make Mexico foot the bill.
But Republicans backed the bill in a 18-12 party-line vote, saying it was time to get a handle on the border.

“We’ve been talking about border security for so many years, and now we finally have a chance to get this done. We finally have a partner in the White House who has prioritized this issue,” said committee Chairman Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who wrote the legislation.
His bill goes well beyond wall-building.
It would add 5,000 new Border Patrol agents to watch the line and 5,000 new Customs and Border Protection officers to man the ports of entry; demand the government finally complete the biometric entry-exit system that’s been on the books for two decades; and direct cash to both local authorities in the U.S. as well as the Mexican government to cooperate on border-related law enforcement.