Border Security Talks Begin On Capitol Hill

A formal committee of congressional negotiators will hold their first, and maybe only, public meeting on Wednesday to kick off talks to reach a border security deal that President Trump will support.

The conference committee is made up of lawmakers who sit on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees charged with writing the annual 12 spending bills that fund the U.S. government. Seven of the 12 bills remain unresolved, although the partial government shutdown centered on just one: the Department of Homeland Security funding bill.

Appropriators are generally the most seasoned and bipartisan negotiators in Congress, and a border deal could be reached on their own more easily if not for the uncertainty of the president and his insistence on funds for a border wall. Today's meeting is open to the public, but going forward the talks are expected to go on in private.

The panel was born out of the deal reached last week to end the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. President Trump relented on his demand for wall funding to re-open government last week, but he refuses to take another shutdown threat off the table.

The president weighed in Wednesday morning on Twitter, telling lawmakers they are "wasting their time!" if a "wall or physical barrier" funding is not included in the deal.