Key GOP senator: Border wall talks are stalled | TheHill – The Hill

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard ShelbyRichard Craig ShelbyCongress seeks to avoid new shutdown: Five things to watch The Hill’s Morning Report — Lawmakers: We are closing on a deal On The Money: Lawmakers closing in on border deal | Dems build case for Trump tax returns | Trump, Xi won’t meet before trade deadline | Waters in talks with Mnuchin for testimony MORE (R-Ala.), a key negotiator on President TrumpDonald John TrumpRob Lowe mocks Warren over Native American ancestry claims Obama health official blasts Trump’s physical exam: ‘No doctor can predict someone’s future health’ Trump makes Native American joke about Warren campaign announcement: ‘See you on the campaign TRAIL’ MORE’s demand for a border wall, said on Sunday that congressional talks are stalled, raising the prospect of another government shutdown at week’s end.

“I think the talks are stalled right now. I’m hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time is ticking away but we’ve got some problems with the Democrats dealing with ICE, that is detaining criminals that come into the U.S. and they want a cap on them. We don’t want a cap on that,” Shelby said on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Democrats have told GOP negotiators that they won’t agree to spend more than $2 billion on border barriers, well below the $5.7 billion that Trump has called for.

In addition, a new issue has roiled the talks: a dispute over the number of beds at immigrant detention centers.

Democrats want to limit the number of people detained at the border, while Republicans oppose restricting the capacity of detention centers.

The two sides also have yet to reach agreement on how much money should be spent on border barriers, Shelby said on Sunday.

“We’ve got to start movement,” Shelby warned.

However, Sen. Jon TesterJonathan (Jon) TesterTrump divides Democrats with warning of creeping socialism On The Money: Lawmakers closing in on border deal | Dems build case for Trump tax returns | Trump, Xi won’t meet before trade deadline | Waters in talks with Mnuchin for testimony Lawmakers say they’re closing in on border deal to prevent shutdown MORE (D-Mont.), a member of the Senate-House conference committee that is trying to negotiate a border deal, said that an agreement is still possible.

“It’s a negotiation. Negotiations seldom go smooth all the way through. It’s give and take, it’s compromise, it’s the way government is supposed to work. We’ve got good people on this conference committee,” he said on “Fox News Sunday” during a joint appearance with Shelby.

“The bottom line is that we’ve got people who aren’t bomb throwers, they’re people who know how to work together and get a deal,” he added. “I’m not positive that we’ll end up with a deal but with this group of people, and the folks in the House, I think we end up with something that deals with detention beds, with barriers, with technology, with the challenges we have at the Southern border, in a common sense way.”

Tester said he is “very hopeful” the negotiators can come to an agreement.

Asked why Democrats want to limit the number of detention beds, Tester said the question of how to set up detention facilities is subsidiary to the bigger dispute over how much money to allocate for border barriers.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick MulvaneyJohn (Mick) Michael MulvaneyIvanka Trump claims president had ‘zero’ involvement in security clearances for her, Jared Kushner White House begins search for person who leaked president’s schedule: report On The Money: Negotiators discussing border funding lower than Trump’s demand | Amazon reconsiders HQ2 move to New York City | Early IRS numbers point to smaller average refunds MORE, meanwhile, said on Sunday that President Trump will build the wall one way or another, and will likely pull from several pots of funding to fulfill his 2016 campaign promise.

Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday” that Trump will take whatever money Congress agrees to allocate for border barriers, which is likely to be an amount between $1.3 billion and $2 billion, and supplement that by reprograming other federal fines.

“We’ll take as much money as you can give us and then we’ll go off and find the money someplace else, legally, in order to secure that Southern barrier [sic] but this is going to get built with or without Congress,” he said.

-Updated 10:55 a.m.