Hurd satisfied with Trump’s shutdown offer, waiting on Pelosi’s counter

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Congressman Will Hurd says he is satisfied with President Donald Trump’s offer over the weekend and now says it is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s turn to make a counteroffer to end the partial federal government shutdown.

“I think the president made the right move this past weekend in showing movement toward trying to get to a solution.  Now it’s time for Speaker Pelosi to have a counteroffer,” Hurd told KTSA’s Jack Riccardi Thursday morning.  “She’s apparently going to do that tomorrow.  Whether that proposal has everything in it that needs to pass the Senate and gets to the president’s desk.”

Last week, Hurd told CBS This Morning that he was against the president’s push for a border wall.

He clarified and updated his stance with Riccardi, saying he is against a concrete barrier “stretching from sea to shining sea” and was happy the president said over the weekend he is not requesting that.

Hurd said there are many improvements that need to be made on the border.  He wants to see walls in urban areas and technology to help track illegal migrants in desolate stretches of the border.

Specifically, he would like to see the completion of the Secure Fence Act passed in 2006.

At ports of entry, the congressman said technology needs to be upgraded.

Currently, he said only one in 12 cars are inspected at the border.

“Let’s have the technology that scans every car,” Hurd stated.  “That’s a simple fix.”

One other issue is drugs coming in through the water.

“Coast Guard is only able to action 25 percent of the known drugs coming into our country,” explained Hurd.

That means the Coast Guard does not respond to 75 percent of the drugs it does know are coming in through the water, on top of all of the other drugs that are not spotted.

Hurd says the current shutdown is negatively impacting people working on the border to keep us safe.

It’s also putting a crimp on the economy.

“We had a brilliant economy,” Hurd explained.  “Nobody thought we could have four percent growth.”

“Now, they are saying zero percent for the first quarter,” Riccardi interjected.

“That’s crazy for a self-inflicted wound and that’s bad all the way around,” Hurd responded.

Regarding the State of the Union, Hurd said it has just become a political game over a technical aspect of government.

“It has turned into a political issue because it’s perceived as the number 1 political objective of one side and the other side will stop at no cost to stop the president from achieving that political objective,” the Republican stated.

But, Hurd thinks that’s going to change.

“Newer members of Congress have a bias toward action because we all came from previous careers.  You’re going to see some rank-and-file members start forcing leadership on both sides on the aisle to come closer to a solution because this is impacting the economy.”