Trump Heads to El Paso amid Stalled Wall Negotiations, Texas Lawmakers Propose State Wall Funding
by Matthew Boyle
BreitBart.com
10 Feb 2019
Two Texas statehouse members will soon introduce legislation funding President Donald Trump’s planned border wall along the U.S. border with Mexico — specifically the Texas border — Breitbart News has learned.
State Reps. Kyle Biedermann and Briscoe Cain intend to introduce legislation soon that would fund $2.5 billion of wall construction along the Texas border with Mexico, appropriating it from the economic stabilization fund for the state fiscal year ending August 31, 2019. The funds would be used, Biedermann tells Breitbart News, “to design, test, construct, and install physical barriers, roads, and technology along the international land border between the State of Texas and Mexico to prevent illegal crossings in all areas.”
Preference for the contracts and awarding of bids, Biedermann added, “for all phases of construction” would be given to Texans and Texas-owned entities.
While this idea is still novel and untested, given the fact that Republicans control the Texas statehouse and Texas state Senate and Texas’ governor Greg Abbott is a strong ally of President Trump’s, this type of plan could actually work in legally acquiring appropriations for a significant portion of what Trump intends to do along the border.
The plan comes as President Trump heads to El Paso, Texas, on Monday evening for a campaign rally in the border town where former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) — the failed 2018 Democrat Senate candidate in Texas, who also is considering a potential 2020 presidential bid — is holding a counter-rally.
It also comes as negotiators on Capitol Hill in Washington, just five days before Friday’s deadline, have reportedly reached an impasse in negotiations over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government agencies totaling about a quarter of the federal government. Just a few weeks ago, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — which started at the end of last year and dragged into this year lasting more than a month — ended after Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks to allow negotiators in Congress to attempt to reach a deal.
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