Republican member of Congress proposes crowd-funding to raise cash

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A REPUBLICAN member of Congress has proposed a US government crowd-funded trust fund to help Donald Trump pay for one of his most contentious campaign policies — the Mexico border wall.

Diane Black introduced a piece of legislation last week that would create a “border wall trust fund”, according to Fox News.

People would be able to donate as much money as they’d like to the fund, which would go towards “whatever it takes to build the wall”, she said.

In an interview with Fox News, Black said while anyone can donate money to the US Treasury now, the trust fund would ensure donations would specifically go toward the construction of the border wall.

“I support President Trump in building the wall. It’s going to take big funds to do that,” Ms Black said.

“The most important job of the federal government is the safety and security of the American people, and if citizens in our country wish to contribute to this effort, they absolutely should be given the opportunity.”

US President Donald Trump promised during the 2016 presidential to build the southern border, and vowed Mexico would pay for it.

But since he took office, Mexico has not paid a cent towards it.

“I would like for Mexico to pay for that, and I’m not close enough to the administration to see what kind of pressure they’re putting on them,” Ms Black said.

“[The President has] built his case and hopefully in future funding there will be more funding for the wall, but why not have multiple sources so we can have the wall done faster?”

In March, Mr Trump signed a $1.3 trillion (about $A1.711 trillion) omnibus spending bill that included only $1.6 billion (about $A2.106 billion) for border measures — much of which is for repairs to already existing fencing.

Ms Black stressed it wasn’t the first time the US government had crowdfunded, with private donations used to built the Washington Monument 185 years ago.

Created in 1833, the Washington National Monument Society fundraised to begin construction of the Washington Monument. The society was given land, raised money and hired architect Robert Mills to design the memorial.

However, the group ran out of money, and construction of the memorial was stalled for more than 20 years until Congress took it over, according to the National Park Service.

Corporations, including Target, also paved the way monetarily for restorations to the monument beginning in 1996, according to the National Park Service.