House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday that Democrats are the reason the spending bill does not include DACA protections.
“We said let’s do multiyear funding for the wall for multiyear relief for the DACA kids, and they walked away from that. They wouldn’t take that,” Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said on Fox News.
He said the House and Senate leaders, as well as President Trump, tried to negotiate with the Democrats on a three-year protection for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that protects children brought to the U.S. illegally. Republicans put funding for the border wall in the bill, but left out DACA since Democrats wanted to include a path to citizenship.
Mr. Ryan said overall the bill does everything Republicans promised to do during the 2016 election.
“This funds the wall, fixes the military, fights opioids, does the things that we said, and does not fund Gateway. This gives Donald Trump the decision on Gateway,” Mr Ryan said.
Gateway is the infrastructure project to rebuild the tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York City to New Jersey. The bill does not allot funding specifically for the project, but as much as $541 million will be available for the project under the deal.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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