Barr calls for ‘barrier system’ on border

President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr, on Tuesday urged Congress to include border security funds in a bill to reopen the government, but left the door open for solutions other than President Trump’s proposed border wall.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked Barr during his nomination hearing what he would like to say to federal employees currently furloughed or working without pay during the partial government shutdown.

“I would like to see a deal reached where by Congress recognizes it’s imperative to have border security,” Barr said, adding that he would like to see “common-sense barriers.”

{mosads}When Klobuchar noted that government funding bills from past years have included border security funds, Barr replied that the U.S. needs “money for border security right now.”

He went on to say that could mean walls, steel slats or other barriers, “whatever makes sense in different areas of the border.”

During an earlier exchange with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Barr had also called for “a barrier system on the border in order to get control of the border.”

A standoff between House Democrats and Trump over the president’s requested funding for his long-promised wall on the southern U.S. border has resulted in a now 25-day-long partial government shutdown, setting a new record.

The president had invited several moderate Democrats to the White House for lunch on Tuesday to try and strike a deal on their own that would fund both the government and the border wall.

But Democrats rejected the offer, with none attending the lunch. Several House Republicans were present at the White House meeting.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday also blocked a package of bills passed by the House that would reopen the government. 

–This report was updated at 1:25 p.m.