White House officials said Thursday that President Donald Trump will sign a hotly contested budget bill when lawmakers send it to him, despite the fact that it provides for only 33 miles of new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump vowed in April 2017 that his long-promised border wall would be finished by the end of his first term in office.
'It's certainly going to – yeah,' he told reporters then, answering a specific question about a four-year timeline and adding that 'we have plenty of time.'
But at the rate the White House has agreed to, the project could stretch through more than two administrations.
President Donald Trump promised to build a border wall in his first term to separate the U.S. from Mexico, but the latest congressional budget sets a pace that would take more than a decade to complete it
White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that the six-month budget includes money for 110 miles of walls and fencing but just 33 miles of that will go up in places that don't already have them
More than half of the 110 funded miles – 63 in all – will look like this section, with replacement 'bollard walls' going up so weaker fencing can be torn down
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Thursday in a hastily assembled briefing that Capitol Hill inertia is to blame.
'If Congress would give us the money to do this, we would do it now,' he told DailyMail.com.
His team and that of Legislative Director Marc Short have secured funding for 110 miles of border barriers costing a sliver of the $1.3 trillion spending bill set to finish its path through Congress later in the day.
Including new roads, Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps assets, technological improvements, facilities, border patrol vehicles, boats, weapons and new personnel, he total package will consumer $1.6 billion in taxpayer dollars.
Some estimates put funding for border barriers in Thursday's spending bill at just $600 million of that
Trump has said he would only need to build between 700 and 900 miles of walls to secure the border; more than half of the 1,954 miles is lined by 'natural barriers' like mountains and rivers
The president made a show last week of visiting border wall prototypes in San Diego last week, but it's unclear if or when they'll ever be included in actual construction
Hundreds of miles of U.S.-Mexico border, like this area in southern Arizona, are completely unprotected
Those plans include only 33 miles of fencing and levee walls where there are currently no barriers. The rest consists of replacements for deteriorating structures and 'secondary' walls running parallel with existing ones.
The president agreed during his campaign that the entire 1,954 miles of U.S.-Mexico border doesn't need physical protection from illegal immigration and the drug trade.
He said last year aboard Air Force One on his way to Paris for a Bastille Day celebration that between 700 and 900 miles would be sufficient because the rest is blocked by 'natural barriers' including mountains and 'rivers that are violent and vicious.'
Ordinary fencing already stretches along 650 miles of the border. An administration official said this week that a stronger wall 'would have to be replacing all of that.'
The appropriations bill that Mulvaney said will get a presidential signature only covers about six months – until the end of the government's fiscal year on September 30.
This fencing is all that separates Mexico from 'El Norte' in some parts of Arizona
White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short (left) told reporters Thursday that his office is already pressing for more wall funding in 2019
At the rate of 33 miles per half-year, it would take the federal government between 10-1/2 and 13-1/2 years to complete the project, depending on the exact mileage targeted.
'Did we get everything we wanted when it comes to immigration? Absolutely not,' Mulvaney said.
Short emphasized that the administration is already preparing to go to battle over next year's budget, suggesting that Thursday's six-month deal is only a taste of what's to come.
'We're already halfway through this fiscal year,' he told DailyMail.com, adding that the White House has 'already submitted budgets for 2019.'
'We certainly continue to ask for additional funding to continue the wall throughout this year,' he said. 'This is for six months because Congress has been unable to complete the appropriations process.'