Schumer says border wall money should be used to fight gun violence
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will soon ask President Trump to withdraw his request for $5 billion to build a wall on the southern border and instead use the funds to address gun violence and white supremacy in the wake of recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
Schumer's office said Tuesday he will formally request the funding go toward research on gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and bolstering Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI programs to counter extremism and domestic terrorism. Mr. Trump has asked Congress to allocate $5 billion to construct the wall.
"The dual scourges of gun violence and violent white supremacist extremism in this country are a national security threat plain and simple, and it's time the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress starting treating them as such," Schumer said in a statement.
Mr. Trump called a national emergency in February to shift funding from the Pentagon to construct a border wall, after congressional Democrats refused to appropriate any funding for a wall.
Schumer's request also comes after Roll Call reported that Senate Republicans were looking to divert $5 billion from a domestic spending bill to fund wall construction.
John Nolen contributed to this report