POLITICS MARCH 12, 2019 / 7:40 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

Texas Republican opposes Trump plan to fund border wall with U.S. defense funds

Patricia Zengerle
2 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday he opposed President Donald Trump’s plan to use $7 billion from the military budget to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

Representative Mac Thornberry said he backs the wall, but not with Pentagon funds, calling Trump’s overall $750 billion defense budget request “the bare minimum” of what the U.S. military needs.

“There are things you can’t do if you fund non-defense items with defense dollars, and I don’t think that’s a good idea whatever the merits of the other program,” Thornberry, a Republican representing the Texas Panhandle, said at a roundtable with journalists.

The comments from Thornberry, a former chairman of the Armed Services panel, underscored the bipartisan opposition facing the budget Trump sent to Congress on Monday, even among those who back many of his programs.

Democrats dismissed the budget proposal as dead on arrival.

-snip-