House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Looks to Fund Trump’s Wall

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is set to introduce a bill this week that if passed, will fully fund President Trump’s border wall between the United States and Mexico. In order for the bill to pass, Republicans must maintain control of the House, which means a November vote for a Republican also represents a vote in support of building the wall.

Yesterday afternoon, soon to be retired Speaker Paul Ryan inferred a fight for further wall funding will be coming. He stated in a press conference “we intend on having a full-fledged discussion on how to complete our mission to secure the border, and yes we will have a fight about this.”

According Breitbart News, McCarthy’s bill will include “about $23.4 billion more than what has already gone to the wall effort–as well as several other enforcement measures that have already passed the House of Representatives.” His “Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act” which is the name of the bill, would help complete large portions of the wall that haven’t been constructed yet as well as focus on other measures of enforcement.

Few things are more fundamental to a nation than a protected border. Proud to introduce the Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act. #MAGA ???????? https://t.co/1nLHgwUvoV

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) October 9, 2018

“For decades, America’s inability to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration has encouraged millions to undertake a dangerous journey to come here in violation of our laws and created a huge loophole to the legal channels to the immigration process where America welcomes immigrants to our country,” McCarthy said in a statement to Breitbart News.

Other significant enforcement measures that will be a part of this legislation will include No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, a bill that passed the House last year 228-195 targeting sanctuary cities, Kate’s Law which is an enforcement bill designed to bar federal grants from sanctuary cities and allow victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to sue those cities. It passed the House 257-167 last year as well. And The Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act, which passed the House last year 233-175. The bill will not deal with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) which is the illegal executive amnesty program implemented by former President Barack Obama as it will strictly relate to enforcement.

These previously listed bills have already passed the House with a healthy margin. Combine that with McCarthy’s Majority Leader status and the odds of this bill also passing looks to promising for the Republican. Despite that, the prospects of this bill making it through the Senate seem much slimmer. Republicans cling to a 51-49 majority in the Senate, but the current partisan divide plus the distasteful stain of events regarding recently elected Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and it doesn’t look good. Additionally Republicans would need to get 60 votes in order to override a filibuster. Something that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has resisted changing the rules on and probably won’t anytime soon.

Overall, all of this will boil down to November 6^th midterm elections. If Republicans can pick up anywhere from 5 to 6 seats in the Senate they will be much closer to a 60 vote filibuster override. Although, if Democrats are able to rally their voters over contentious topics such as this and manage to gain as many as 2 or 3 seats, this bill will undoubtedly be blocked. Furthermore, the House could decide to vote on this bill in the last months of 2018, but the senate might wait until 2019 to gather more Republicans. This would mean the bill would have to go through the House again in the New Year.