Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said Friday there would likely be money for some kind of barrier in any deal the conference committee strikes. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Government Shutdown GOP border security negotiator: Chances of another shutdown are 'nil or next to nil'

A Republican member of the bipartisan conference committee responsible for reaching a deal on border security said Friday that there is “no appetite” in the Capitol for a second government shutdown this year.

Asked in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” about the odds of another partial shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demands for border wall money, Tennessee Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said “nil, or next to nil.”


“In this situation, there is no appetite on either side of the aisle and I think in either chamber for another partial government shutdown,” Fleischmann told host Steve Doocy.

The Tennessee congressman said last month’s shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history and affected a quarter of the federal government, “was a problem and should have never happened” and he criticized his colleagues in the Senate for declining to take up a Trump-backed bill with wall funding passed by the then-GOP controlled House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said he wouldn’t put that bill up for a vote because it likely would not have cleared 60-vote threshold needed to pass.

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Fleischmann’s comments come as the conference committee races to find a compromise on border security before a stopgap spending bill runs out next Friday, prompting another shutdown. Lawmakers have signaled that progress is being made, with some predicting a deal could be reached as soon as Friday.

But it’s unlikely a compromise would include the president’s requested $5.7 billion for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Legislators’ drive to avert another shutdown at all costs could corner the president and force his hand on whether he is willing to issue a national emergency declaration to build a wall, which lawmakers have also cautioned against.

Fleischmann, who is the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said Friday there would likely be money for some kind of barrier in any deal the conference committee strikes, though he wouldn’t specify what kind, suggesting that a spending bill would “maybe” include money for a wall, fencing and another kind of physical barrier.