"the wall street journal" reported the day of trump's declaration that his action was the outcome of "two years of political neglect of his signature campaign promise, lost amid competing priorities and divisions within his administration," with no single administration official having been designated to champion funding of the border wall in congress. trump rejected a proposal in january 2018 that would have authorized $25 billion for wall construction in exchange for a path to citizenship for dreamers, as well as a similar proposal the next month. in march, congress approved a bill providing for $1.6 billion in barrier funding. threatening to veto the bill, "the journal" reported that trump was surprised to learn that the $1.6 billion was the amount that had been requested in his budget. trump's budget director mick mulvaney then privately advised the president to blame house speaker paul ryan for not seeking more funding. tom davis, an influential former republican congressman, observed, "the mistake they made was not coming in right away and coming up with a plan. you wonder why they didn’t try to jam this through when republicans controlled the house because it’s a lot more complicated now trying to convince nancy pelosi."