As President Donald Trump left Washington, D.C. on Friday night for a weekend at his Florida retreat, the President again made clear his displeasure with the pace of negotiations in Congress on funding for border security, as Mr. Trump indicated to reporters he is ready to declare a national emergency in order to access money to build a wall along portions of the Mexican border.
"We will be looking at a national emergency, because I don’t think anything is going to happen," President Trump said of talk to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
"We're getting nowhere with the Democrats," Mr. Trump said. "The Democrats are doing a tremendous disservice."
With his State of the Union Address set for next Tuesday night - and a February 15 funding deadline looming - President Trump indicated he might well be discussing the idea of declaring a national emergency on the wall.
"I'm saying listen closely to the State of the Union. I think you'll find it very exciting," Mr. Trump said.
In Congress, Republicans were making more noise as well, complaining about a lack of action in House-Senate negotiations - those talks convened on Wednesday, but there was no sense on Capitol Hill that a deal was near.
So far, Democrats have not made public the legislative text and full details of their offer on border security funding, something which was noted by GOP lawmakers.
"We are two weeks away from the next government shutdown. The House adjourned until Tuesday. There are no meetings scheduled," said Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), one of the members of the House-Senate conference committee.
"The country was led to believe this would be a real negotiation," Graves added.
Republicans said the lack of action was one reason why the President might well choose to unilaterally act.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a deal must be reached before February 15 - as she told reporters an agreement needs to be in hand next Friday, February 8.
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