Chaos ensues over border and national security funding
The U.S. Border Protection and Asymmetries Act Revisited: Two House Republicans Are Against Its Procedural Voting
A bipartisan plan to address U.S. asylum and border control policy faces major skepticism Monday as at least two dozen Senate Republicans cast serious doubt on the legislation’s chances.
The bill in question was specifically crafted to meet GOP demands that Democrats link border policy changes to President Biden’s request for military aid to Israel and Ukraine. But by Monday night Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the top Republican negotiator on the Senate deal, was predicting that a procedural vote on the package would fail this week.
Lankford would not go that far. He told reporters that it was clear the bill would need to be amended in order to garner more Republican support. If you’re moving further to the right it will lose you a lot of Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold.
The newly-released $118 billion national security bill includes roughly $20 billion for border provisions, including $650 million for the border wall and funding for asylum judges, expanded detention capacity and other programs.
The proposal would raise the threshold to meet asylum claims, mandate a 90-day initial determination of eligibility, and force Border Protection agents to turn away migrants that enter between official ports of entry if they reach a certain threshold.
But it was Republicans who initially demanded border policy changes be paired with Ukraine assistance, and it’s not clear there is appetite among the House GOP for a standalone Ukraine bill.
The House Democratic leaders accused the plan of being a cynical attempt to undermine the bipartisan deal in the Senate. Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus has criticized the bill for its lack of financial offsets.
“I think that it is hard to overcome that and the attitude of the House, because most members have come out and said no,” said Senate GOP leader Charles Schumer, D-New York. Many of our members came out as hard nos before the legislation was released.
” There are some Republican-aligned groups that are supportive but Trump seems to be a bit of a puppet these days,” Murphy said, commenting on an endorsement from a Border Protection agents’ union. I hope that isn’t true with this bill.
“After months of a negotiating process that lacked transparency or the involvement of a single border state Democrat,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in a statement, “the deal includes a new version of a failed Trump-era immigration policy that will cause more chaos at the border, not less.”
After months of stalling an international aid package for Ukraine and Israel in favor of tougher border policy, top Republicans are now calling for a solo international aid package because they oppose the addition of stricter border policy.
A bipartisan Senate package that paired border security measures with assistance to Israel and Ukraine appeared all but dead Tuesday, after Republicans backed away from the deal amid growing criticism from the right.
Dem Demographics: Democratic Devolves into Chaos Over Border and National Security Funding for the 2016 Peminvestiture Causality Causal Budget
“We are trying to figure out what to do next,” Lankford told reporters in the Capitol. People are saying that we need more time to go through this.
The Republicans must decide if they serve Donald Trump or the Americans. Biden posed in a speech at the White House. “Do they want to solve problems, or do they just weaponize problems for political purposes?”
“Every day between now and November, the American are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends,” Biden said.
The procedural vote on Wednesday would likely bring an end to a bipartisan effort to address the border, with Murphy saying that Republicans walked away from a new plan.
The Senate is considering moving back to the original plan from last year to separate funding for Israel and humanitarian aid.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he plans to move forward with a procedural vote to begin debate tomorrow or Thursday, in response to Republican requests for more time to consider the bill.
“Senators are elected to vote, not to be afraid, run away, make excuses when it comes to voting on the tough issues,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “No one is being asked to take a position on the supplemental tomorrow. The only thing a yes vote would allow us for the Senate to simply begin to consider, discuss and debate the vitally important issues before us now.”
In order to win over some Republicans, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to remove aid to Ukraine from a larger defense bill. Ninety-three Republicans voted for an amendment to the defense bill that would “prohibit security assistance” to Ukraine.
Efforts to help Ukraine have been continuing, Johnson said Tuesday. The Ukrainian forces are out of resources now that the U.S. has stopped funding them.
Source: Congress devolves into chaos over border and national security funding
Reply to Comment on ‘Sensitive Investigations of the Israel Assistance Measure” by B. J. Johnson
Republicans had to avoid a Rules Committee hearing on the bill that could have caused anger among far-right conservatives. Rules must sign off on legislation and the full House must agree in order for a bill to come up with a simple majority vote.
The Israel assistance bill was brought under suspension of House rules which requires two-thirds of the caucus to pass it, but Johnson chose instead to bring it to the floor.
The partisan effort to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, who is the Department of Homeland Security’s Secuirty of Homeland Security, was undertaken as the legislative efforts seemed to be faltering. A group of House GOP members expressed doubt about the impeachment and leaders were forced to try to win over enough support to avoid an embarrassing vote.
