As 32 House and Senate Republicans helped breathe life into President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, some once opposed the prospect of spending $25 billion to build border wall in an effort to reduce illegal immigration to the United States.
Last weekend, 13 House Republicans voted with Democrats to send a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to Biden’s desk. In early August, 19 Senate Republicans did the same, helping pass the bill through the chamber to the House for approval.
The bill includes $0 for construction of border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, despite proclaiming to be a package of infrastructure projects and a record-high flow of illegal immigration to the nation.
The 13 House Republicans who voted for the bill include:
- John Katko (R-NY)
- Don Bacon (R-NE)
- Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ)
- Fred Upton (R-MI)
- Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)
- Don Young (R-AK)
- Tom Reed (R-NY)
- Chris Smith (R-NJ)
- Andrew Garbarino (R-NY)
- Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)
- Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
- Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
- David McKinley (R-WV)
The 19 Senate Republicans who voted for the bill include:
- Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
- Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
- Mike Crapo (R-ID)
- Roy Blunt (R-MO)
- Richard Burr (R-NC)
- Deb Fischer (R-NE)
- Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- Rob Portman (R-OH)
- Thom Tillis (R-NC)
- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Jim Risch (R-ID)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
- Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- John Hoeven (R-ND)
- Susan Collins (R-ME)
- Mitt Romney (R-UT)
A number of Senate Republicans who supported the $1.2 trillion bill once balked at former President Donald Trump’s plans to secure $25 billion in border wall funding, suggesting that the plan cost too much money.
In October 2018, for instance, Blunt and Murkowski both seemingly opposed plans to include $25 billion for border wall construction in an appropriations bill. When Blunt was asked about the funding, NBC News reported that he laughed while Murkowski said the plan “worried” her.
Earlier that year, when Trump laid out a framework to secure the $25 billion from Congress to build border wall, Graham told ABC News that “you don’t need $25 billion for a wall,” suggesting that the money needed to go towards “wall systems.”
In September 2019, 11 Senate Republicans helped Democrats strike down Trump’s then-national emergency order at the southern border which had allowed him to seek out different funding avenues for border wall construction after the Republican-controlled Congress from 2017 to 2018 continuously failed to pass a sum large enough to fill gaps of the nearly 2,000-mile-long border.
Blunt, Murkowski, Collins, Romney, Portman, and Wicker, all of whom voted for Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, voted with Democrats to block Trump’s ability to seek out other funding avenues.
Over the course of the Republican-controlled Congress when Trump was president, GOP leadership in the House and Senate offered little funds for border wall construction.
In March 2018, for instance, House and Senate Republicans approved a spending bill that funded wall construction to the sum of just $1.6 billion — nearly $24 billion less than what Trump had asked for. On top of the limited funds, the spending bill also set limits on where and how the administration could construct border wall.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.