Washington, DC (WJER) - The two congressmen representing Tuscarawas County say they want lawmakers to reach a deal to keep the government open this week and properly fund border security. 

Negotiators have until Friday to agree on a spending bill or deal with another partial shutdown.  Seventh district congressman Bob Gibbs believes there is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for the president’s $5.7 billion border security request.

“I think there’s lots of Democrats in Congress that realize that having a barrier on the southern border where it’s appropriate it makes a lot of sense. They work. We know that. The president has compromised on that. He’s not doing a cement wall. He’s doing a steel, see-through barrier on about 250 miles. We already have about 600 miles of barrier fencing, and we know it works,” he says.

Sixth district congressman Bill Johnson says we need a combination of resources to keep the threats from entering the country.

“When you consider in 2017 and 2018 that we saw a 73 percent increase in the fentanyl, a very, very deadly drug that’s coming across our southern border, we’ve gotta stop the tide, stop the flow of illegal drugs across the southern border,” he says.  

Johnson says he agrees there is a humanitarian and security crisis at the border, so the president could declare an emergency to get the funding.  

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