July 6 (UPI) -- House Democrats on Monday unveiled a draft of legislation designed to block funds for the Trump administration's wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The House appropriations committee released a draft of the funding bill, which earmarks government money for the Homeland Security Department.
The bill allots nearly $51 billion in discretionary funding for the department in fiscal 2021, which is neither an increase nor decrease from 2020. It also provides $5.1 billion for disaster relief and $215 million for overseas contingency operations.
The bill includes no funding for additional Border Patrol agents or security barriers, said Homeland Security subcommittee Chair Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.
Roybal-Allard said the draft gives the department "funding it needs to protect American communities" but contains measures to "keep the administration accountable and transparent."
"[That includes] a prohibition on diverting any new money for President Trump's racist border wall boondoggle," she said in a statement.
The measure also rescinds nearly $1.4 million it previously granted for the wall, after Trump diverted funds from the Defense Department last year as part of an emergency declaration spurred by an influx of migrants at the southern border.
Trump has said his administration has already built more than 200 miles of the wall.
"Our bill ... provides resources to meet the humanitarian needs of migrants and, critically, it prohibits the administration from raiding funds for the President's wasteful border wall," said committee Chair Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
The measure provides $14.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection, more than $1 billion less than the agency's request, and $171 million for new staffing.
The bill will next be debated and is ultimately expected to pass the Democrat-controlled House. Negotiators in the Republican-held Senate are still working on appropriations bills for 2021. Both houses of Congress began a two-week recess on Monday.
