Freedom Caucus Won’t Demand October Shutdown Over Wall

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chairman of the Freedom Caucus. (Credit Image: © Jeff Malet/NC via ZUMA Press)

The conservative House Freedom Caucus will not push for border wall funding as part of the expected stopgap funding bill next month, according to the group’s chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).

“In talking to a number of my members, if there was a vote for a continuing resolution next week that did not include border wall funding, the majority of those members would be supportive of that,” Meadows said in a Tuesday interview on ABC’s “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.

That position exposes a rift with President Trump, who said last week that he would shut down the government over funding for a wall along the southern border, one of his central campaign promises.

“Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump told a raucous rally in Phoenix.

{snip}

But the Freedom Caucus isn’t backing off its support for a showdown on the wall so much as postponing it.

Government funding will run out at the end of September, and Congress is looking to deploy a three-month stopgap measure  — a continuing resolution  — to prevent a shutdown come October.

{snip}