By NICOLE DURAN • 2/6/17 7:52 PM


The House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, expects President Trump to seek funds for his border will in a supplemental defense-spending request.

House Republican leaders are anticipating finding $15 billion to fund construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Trump promised to ask Congress within 100 days for additional money to "rebuild" the military. Thornberry said he's now hearing that it will also include requests for money for "border security," presumably, the wall.

House Republicans have long harped about the deficit and pledged to bring it down. They say they will pass a balanced budget and offset spending increases with cuts. However, they are not promising to do so with money for the border wall.

Supplemental requests are considered emergency spending and, therefore, circumvent offset requirements.

Republican leaders have said it is not fiscally irresponsible to approve funds for the wall without finding equal cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Budget hawks have also brushed off criticism that they are compromising by approving the $15 billion.

"It is our belief that we can offset it and yet at the same time I'll stay true to my commitment that we're going to give the president the tools necessary, whether it is a non-offset spending on a short-term basis that we find the offsets at a later date, but I think we can find them now," House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said recently.

"We have a $1 trillion budget," he said. "I would hope that we could find $15 billion over 10 years in it."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/re...rticle/2614080