Rep. Tom Reed Thomas (Tom) W. ReedCentrist House group offers bipartisan COVID-19 relief deal House approves two child care bills aimed at pandemic Diabetes Caucus co-chairs say telehealth expansion to continue beyond pandemic MORE (R-N.Y.) on Thursday called the dispute over whether to build a wall along the southern border "a silly and asinine debate."

Reed, appearing on CNN's "New Day," also called on lawmakers "to move past this" and negotiate a deal.

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“I’ve seen the president use the term 'border wall,' 'border security,' but I just saw Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiPowell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy Overnight Defense: House to vote on military justice bill spurred by Vanessa Guillén death | Biden courts veterans after Trump's military controversies Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE use ‘not a dollar for a wall.’ This is such a silly and asinine debate," Reed said.

"We need to move past this. We need to get into border security, which will include a wall. So someone’s going to break their word, so to speak, but at the end of the day who loses in that is the American people," he continued.

"This is such a silly and asinine debate," says GOP @RepTomReed.



"We need to move past this, and we need to get into boarder security which will include a wall... And at the end of the day who loses is the American people."https://t.co/NaRbVoUCAG pic.twitter.com/Eso3W3fzuY — New Day (@NewDay) January 3, 2019

Reed also said that a border wall would not be "coast to coast" if it gets approved.

“Many people think of the wall as coast to coast," he said. "That is not going to be the outcome of a compromise position. There’s hundreds of miles that are relevant for application of a wall-type border security measure.”

The federal government is currently in a partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22 with lawmakers at odds over President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE's demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border.

Democrats in Congress have said they will not approve any funding for a wall, while Trump has pledged to keep the government shut down as long as it takes to secure that funding. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion in border security funding.

Trump and lawmakers met Wednesday at the White House to discuss the border, but there were no indications afterward that the two sides were close to a deal that would reopen the government.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after the meeting that he didn't believe "any particular progress was made" and suggested the shutdown could continue for weeks.