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“Border wall funding shrinks in Trump’s 2018 budget, but White House insists otherwise”

WASHINGTON — The White House has drastically scaled back demands for funds to construct a border wall, seeking $1.6 billion in the budget submitted to Congress on Tuesday — $2.5 billion less than announced just two months ago.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday that “we are absolutely dead serious about the wall” and insisted that the administration hasn’t scaled back funding targets.

But in mid-March he explicitly called for $4.1 billion toward wall construction by the end of 2018. He and aides reject that there is any discrepancy, however.

The Trump budget blueprint rolled out in mid-March called for $2.6 billion toward wall construction by the end of 2018.

The stopgap budget that runs through Sept. 30 includes $1.5 billion for border security — including $341 million for upgrades to about 40 miles of existing fence. But none of that is allowed to go for construction of new barriers along the Southwest border. In cutting the deal with Congress, President Donald Trump dropped a demand to such funds.

Mulvaney said at the time that there was too little time left in 2017 to start building a new wall anyway. He touted the $1.5 billion as sufficient for repairs, and to work on roads and planning for a more extensive barrier.

He also promised that the other $2.6 billion toward wall construction would be included in the 2018 budget plan.
But that plan, submitted Tuesday, includes just $1.6 billion toward the wall.

Even so, Mulvaney insisted Tuesday in the White House briefing room that “it’s not accurate” to say that the 2018 budget request represents a scaled down funding target for a border wall, though — like aides — he didn’t square the current request with the much larger target he cited two months ago.