The Senate Homeland Security Package: Status and Future of the U.S. Border Control and Asymmetries Measures after Biden’s Visit to Israel and Ukraine
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. On Monday night, the top Republican on the Senate deal was predicting that the procedural vote on the package would fail this week.
Lankford would not go that far. The bill needed to be amended in order to get more Republican support, according to him. But moving any further to the right risks losing enough 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 also raise the threshold to meet asylum claims, mandate a 90-day initial determination of eligibility and require Border Protection agents to turn away all migrants who enter between official ports of entry if the total number of encounters reaches a certain threshold.
Reply to Comment on ‘The lack of border security and assistance to Israel’ [Between the House and Senate Appropriations]
House Republicans will bring forward a bill to aid Israel in lieu of the larger package. It seems like that proposal won’t pass.
House Democratic leaders slammed the standalone proposal as a “nakedly obvious and cynical attempt” to undermine the bipartisan deal in the Senate. The bill lacks any financial offsets, which has been criticized by the House Freedom Caucus.
“I think that it’s difficult to overcome the attitude of the House since they have already come out and said no,” said Senate GOP leadership member. Many of our members came out as hard nos before the legislation’s release, and I am very disappointed.
“There are certainly some typically Republican-aligned groups that are supportive,” Murphy said, referring to an endorsement from a Border Protection agents’ union, “but Trump seems to be a bit of a puppeteer these days. I hope that’s not true with respect to this bill.”
The deal was thrown into disarray by the actions of former President Trump and House GOP leaders. The failure of the package – which includes roughly $20 billion for border provisions, and raises the threshold to meet asylum claims – would cast doubt on Congress’ ability to get anything done on border security or foreign assistance between now and Election Day.
After months of stalling an international aid package for Ukraine and Israel in favor of tougher border policy, top Republicans are calling for a standalone international aid package because they now oppose the addition of stricter border policy they demanded.
The bipartisan Senate proposal that included border security and assistance to Israel appeared to be dead Tuesday after Republicans backed away from the deal amid growing criticism from the right.
Democratic Senators Volves into Chaos over Border and National Security Funding: The Case Against the Invasion of the U.S.
“We are still trying to figure out what to do next,” he told reporters in the Capitol. People are saying that they need more time to recover from the event.
“Republicans have to decide who do they serve: Donald Trump or the American people?” Biden was in the White House. “Are they here to solve problems, or 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.
Murphy said Republicans would abandon a new plan if the Wednesday procedural vote ended the bipartisan effort to address the border.
Senators from both parties are looking into going back to the original plan of last year to try to pass 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.
Schumer said that senators are not elected to be afraid, run away and make excuses when voting on tough issues. “No one is being asked to take a position on the supplemental tomorrow. If we vote yes, we’ll be able to begin the discussion and debate on important issues in the Senate.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was forced to remove $3oo million of aid to Ukraine from a larger defense bill in the fall in order to win over a handful of GOP holdouts. Ninety-three Republicans voted for an amendment to the defense bill that would “prohibit security assistance” to Ukraine.
Johnson said Tuesday that efforts to help Ukraine “have not been abandoned. The Pentagon has said that Ukrainian forces are running out of equipment now that the U.S. funding is gone.
Source: Congress devolves into chaos over border and national security funding
Reply to the Comment on “The House Rules Committee Apparently Does not want a simple majority vote on the Israel aid bill” by A.J. Johnson
Republican leaders were forced to skirt a Rules Committee hearing on the bill, which could have exposed anger among conservatives. Legislation must be approved by the House’s rules in order to get a simple majority vote.
Johnson chose instead to bring the Israel aid bill to the floor under suspension of House rules, which requires a two-thirds vote to pass, and already Democratic leaders and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have said they will oppose it.
As the legislative efforts appeared to have faded, so too did the partisan effort to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Several House GOP members expressed doubt about impeachment, leaving leaders hours to try to rally support in order to avoid an embarrassing vote planned for Tuesday evening.