(CNSNews.com) – On a dark and stormy night in Washington, there was a glimmer of hope for President Donald Trump and all who support his effort to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The House of Representatives voted 217-185 to pass a short-term continuing resolution that includes $5.7 billion in funding for the wall as well as $7.8 billion in disaster relief.
House Democrats united against the move, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted the bill will not pass the Senate. If no agreement is reached, a partial government shutdown will happen at midnight.
President Trump, in two tweets following the vote, said he was “proud” of House Republicans, and he also had a message for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who insisted Republicans could not do what they had just done:
Thank you to our GREAT Republican Members of Congress for your VOTE to fund Border Security and the Wall. The final numbers were 217-185 and many have said that the enthusiasm was greater than they have ever seen before. So proud of you all. Now on to the Senate!
Soon to be Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, last week live from the Oval Office, that the Republicans didn’t have the votes for Border Security. Today the House Republicans voted and won, 217-185. Nancy does not have to apologize. All I want is GREAT BORDER SECURITY!
Thursday’s last-minute scramble began when President Trump refused to sign a “clean” C.R. passed by the Senate that included no wall funding.
Trump called Republican leaders to the White House, after which House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters:
We just had a very long, productive meeting with the president. The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came over from the Senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security.
So what we’re going to do is go back to the House and work with our members. We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border. We have very serious concerns about securing our border.
So, the president said he will not sign this bill. So we’re going to go back and work on adding border security to this, also to keeping the government open because we do want to see an agreement.