Why Congress Will Not Build That Wall

Posted: October 24th, 2018

By Todd Rosenblum

Todd M. Rosenblum served as President Obama’s Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs at the Pentagon, as well as Deputy Under Secretary of Intelligence for Plans, Policy, and Performance Management at the Department of Homeland Security. Over the course of a 27-year career, Rosenblum held positions with the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Department of State, and began his professional career as an Intelligence Officer in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs.

The President’s recent tweet storm threatening to close the U.S.’s land border with Mexico and order military action to counter a “dangerous” caravan of asylum seekers, highlights his interest in making border security a key issue in the midterm elections. Rhetoric aside, the Republican-controlled Congress continues to reject his effort to fund the building of a new wall along the nation’s roughly 2,000 mile border with Mexico.

Congress did appropriate $1.6 billion earlier in the year for enhancing existing barriers, but declined a White House push to add more money for new walls in last month’s spending bill. Congress not only declined to provide more money, but also stipulated that the money could only be used to augment existing fencing, not to build new walls. The Administration will have another crack at securing money for new building in the next spending showdown – when a lame duck Congress has to fund other arms of government – in early December.

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