House committee approves bill that includes $10 billion for border wall

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee passed a border security bill that includes $10 billion in border wall funding, $5 billion to improve entry points, and money to hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents.

Proposed by committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the Border Security for America Act passed along party lines, 18-12, and is seen by Democrats as a way for Republicans to throw a bone to President Trump, who made building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a campaign issue. Democrats are also concerned that this may be an early attempt at linking border security funding with protecting DACA recipients. "There's no doubt that this is a setup for that conversation," Rep. Nannette Barragán (D-Calif.) said.

The bill will likely pass in the House, but isn't expected to clear the Senate, where a 60-vote majority is necessary. The committee's Democrats had fun proposing amendments to the bill, like Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who called for its name to be changed to the "Taking Americans' Land to Build Trump's Wall Act of 2017," and Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas), who proposed that any definition of a "border wall" include the words "big and beautiful," "real," "inclusive of a door," and "paid for by the Mexican government," The Hill reports.

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