Personally, knowing what I know about not only the poison pills but the usual outrageous spending that they added to this thing, I would veto it. However, neither you nor I know what Trump and his advisors know about it - and Trump knows that he MUST make progress on this issue or lose the 2020 election. IOW, he will FAIL - and DJT just doesn’t see himself as a failure at anything. I trust that he knows how he’s going to (or already has) outsmart the Dems, given that he’s been outsmarting opponents for about the last 45 years.
As far as spending only in September, don’t you think that building can start sooner, with a previously worked-out contract ready to be signed, and payments made, on 9/1/19? Seriously, we’re not dealing with a guy in the White House who is a novice at getting very complex deals done on time, if not ahead of schedule.
From the bill:
“Prior to use of any funds made available by this Act for the construction of physical barriers within the city limits of any city or census designated place described in subsection (c), the Department of Homeland Security and the local elected officials of such a city or census designated place shall confer and seek to reach mutual agreement regarding the design and alignment of physical barriers within that city or the census designated place (as the case may be). Such consultations shall continue until September 30, 2019 (or until agreement is reached, if earlier) and may be extended beyond that date by agreement of the parties, and no funds made available in this Act shall be used for such construction while consultations are continuing.”
The local communities in the bill were cherry-picked to be Democrat strongholds and will never agree during the "conferring" period, and the President is forbidden to use the funds during the "conferring" period.
Trump is effectively banned from using the money in the bill.
-PJ