President Donald Trump To Ask Congress For $8.6B For Border Wall

(CNBC) President Donald Trump on Monday will ask the U.S. Congress for an additional $8.6 billion to help pay for the wall he promised to build on the southern border with Mexico to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking officials familiar with his 2020 budget request told Reuters. The demand is more than six times what Congress allocated for border projects in each of the past two fiscal years and 6 percent more than Trump has corralled by invoking emergency powers this year. Democrats who oppose the wall as unnecessary and immoral control the U.S. House of Representatives making it unlikely the Republican presidents request will win congressional passage. Republicans control the Senate. The proposal comes on the heels of a bruising battle with Congress over wall funding that resulted in a five-week partial federal government shutdown that ended in January and could touch off a sequel just ahead of a trifecta of ominous fiscal deadlines looming this fall.