U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to veto a spending deal clinched in a dead-of-night compromise in Congress, in a dramatic U-turn that raises the fresh specter of a government shutdown.
He brandished the threat in a tweet after the Senate passed the $1.3 trillion spending bill, 65-32, under the pressure of a midnight Friday deadline to fund the government, or shut it down.
Mr. Trump’s White House had given its blessing to the compromise spending deal with Democrats, but by Friday morning, the President had second thoughts.
“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 8,00,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats [not even mentioned in Bill] and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded,” he said.
The Bill provided $1.6 billion for border security and construction or repair of nearly 160 km of border fencing, but that was far less than what Mr. Trump had been seeking.
Dreamers ignored
It also set aside the issue of the so-called “Dreamers,” who are in legal limbo following the Trump administration’s repeal of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrival, a policy instituted by former President Barack Obama that protected them from deportation.
In a Congress riven by partisan feuding, passage of the massive Bill to fund the U.S. government through September was considered a rare achievement.
The centerpiece was a big increase in U.S. defense spending to $700 billion dollars, up $61 billion, and a 10% hike in domestic spending, which would rise to $591 billion.
