Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) issued the following statement after voting in favor of legislation to fund the government, begin construction of a border wall, and make necessary national security improvements:

“We need significantly more than 55 miles of wall to fully protect our southern border, but this bill makes a down-payment on the wall while future funding is negotiated. Plus, I absolutely did not want to see another government shutdown. Shutdowns are bad for our economy and bad for the American people. We will keep working until the entire border wall is funded.”