Senate Republicans have plenty of controversial questions to answer in their reconciliation bill. How much will they cut Medicaid? Will the poorest Americans effectively see their taxes go up from the legislation? Will the bill cut food benefits?
But on Thursday, it wasn’t the most contentious elements of the legislation that were causing Republicans headaches; it was a part of the bill that, up until this point, Republicans have been unified on: border security.
The budget resolution that Republicans adopted to set up reconciliation directs the Homeland Security Committee to include $175 billion in funding for border control and President Donald Trump’s signature border wall. The committee’s chair, Sen. Rand Paul, said he plans to introduce his own version of the bill with far less funding, telling reporters this week his legislation would “actually be a conservative version” with about “half as much money.”