Border Wall, Family Separations Scrutinized in Congress

• Final push for homeland security negotiations before deadline
• Democratic House seeking answers on treatment of kids at border

A newly organized Congress eager to get to work after last month’s shutdown took on a spate of homeland security priorities, including border security and family separations.

Bloomberg Government reporter Michaela Ross reviews the developments.

Latest Negotiations

A group of 17 bipartisan lawmakers say they’re close to wrapping up a funding package that will avert another government shutdown next week.

Lawmakers have signaled there will be some money for border barriers, although likely not close to the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump has sought for a border wall.

Trump doubled down on his call for a wall at his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, but he rolled back his insistence that the wall be made of concrete.

Trump Calls for `Smart, Strategic’ Barrier Along Southern Border

Hearings to investigate the Trump administration’s separation of families also began this week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with two additional hearings planned for next week in the Oversight and Reform Committee and Judiciary Committee. The panels are probing evidence that the government didn’t have an adequate tracking and reunification system in place when it separated undocumented children from their parents at the border before immigration proceedings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michaela Ross in Washington at mross@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Hendrie at phendrie@bgov.com; Robin Meszoly at rmeszoly@bgov.com