Murray thumbs down on border wall money; Idaho senators waiting to see budget deal

Idaho Republicans are willing to take a wait-and-see stance on whether a deal to keep the federal government operating should contain money for a border wall. A Washington Democrat said it definitely should not.

Sen. Patty Murray, the senior member of the Washington delegation and a former chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, accused President Donald Trump of trying to “push” budget talks into a government shutdown with last-minute demands. Instead, she hopes Republicans will work to come up with a responsible budget for the rest of the year.

“I am certainly going to keep fighting back against President Trump’s ill-conceived wall, and like a lot of families I’m hearing from in our state, I am curious why he is asking U.S. taxpayers to pay for it now when he promised on the campaign trail that Mexico would be footing the bill,” Murray said in a statement in response to an inquiry about ongoing budget talks.

The contents of the final bill are still in negotiation, said Kaylin Minton, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, but the border wall was authorized by Congress years ago and partially built.

“It will be up to Congress to either authorize the funding or not,” Minton added.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is waiting to see if negotiators include money for the border wall in a negotiated budget deal, spokesman Lindsay Nothern said.

“We are not projecting a shutdown at this time; we’ll know more later this week,” he said.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said the last two weeks traveling around her Eastern Washington district convinced her people don’t want a government shutdown.

“Right now there are ongoing bipartisan discussions between the House, the Senate and the White House to determine how government is funded for the remainder of the year,” she said.