Senate $118 billion border, national security bill torpedoed

WASHINGTON — A sudden surge of Republican opposition Tuesday to a bipartisan border security measure unveiled Sunday appears to have torpedoed the $118 billion supplemental funding for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs.

The Senate will hold a procedural vote Wednesday to move the national security supplemental bill forward, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said after a “robust discussion” among Republican senators it appeared that vote would fail.

“Most of our members feel that we’re not going to be make a law here, and if we’re not going to be able to make a law, they’re reluctant to go forward,” McConnell said. He noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had said the supplemental would be “dead on arrival” in the House.

Senate Democrats reacted with anger at the sudden withdrawal of support from a border security deal that McConnell and Johnson had insisted be part of the supplemental and that most Senate Republicans had not objected to during the bipartisan team’ negotiations.

“After months of good faith negotiations, after months of giving Republicans many of the things they asked for, Leader McConnell and the Republican conference are ready to kill the national security supplemental package even with border provisions they so fervently demand,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

President Joe Biden, who worked with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-N.J.) and Sen. Kristen Sinema (I-Ariz.) on the border security deal, blamed former President Donald Trump, his expected Republican opponent in the race for president.

“For the last 24 hours he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal,” Biden said. “It looks like they’re caving.”

Congress still needs to approve the supplemental funding package, McConnell and Schumer agree, but how to do that remains an unanswered question given resistance by a growing number of House Republicans to send more funds to Ukraine.

The border deal

The bipartisan border security measure includes about $20 billion to beef up staffing and enforcement across federal departments and agencies responsible for the immigration process, and sets aside funds to crack down on crime and imports of fentanyl.

The measure would revamp the asylum system, creating a higher standard to meet a protection claim, faster processing and shifting of much of the border caseload to federal asylum officers and away from immigration courts.

It would launch a mandatory shutdown of migrant asylum requests when there is a daily average of 5,000 or more border crossings over a seven-day period.

And it includes a pathway to citizenship for Afghans evacuated during Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, many of whom were indispensable to the United States in fighting the Taliban.

But it is not as strict as H.R. 2, the border bill that House Republicans passed last year and insist is the only solution to the border crisis.

Border politics

Immigration has become the sand trap of politics in this crucial election year, as Republicans and Democrats dig themselves into holes while appealing to their bases of support.

“Make no mistake about it, this is the Biden border crisis,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Tuesday.

“When he came into office, he reversed all the policies of the previous administration and now we're seeing the results of that, [there] has been [an] absolute onslaught at our southern border. It is completely, completely out of control,” he said.

Democrats complained that Republicans abandoned the border security measure for political gain and at Trump’s urging, despite their demand that the supplemental include border security.

“If there's two words to describe why this — one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before us in a very long time — failed, it is ‘Donald Trump,’” Schumer said. “And second, it's the inability of Republican congressmen and senators to resist his bullying, even though they know he's wrong.”

Now what?

Schumer and McConnell acknowledge Congress still needs to pass supplemental funding, especially for Ukraine, which is running out of ammunition, and Israel, which still is fighting Hamas.

“There are other parts of this supplemental that are extremely important as well — Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan. We still, in my view, tackle the rest of it because it’s important,” McConnell said. “It’s up to Sen. Schumer how to repackage it.”

Schumer said he would move forward with the supplemental.

“Look, we feel this is so important for the security of America at the border, for the security of Ukraine and Israel, we're going to keep at it. This is not the last Republicans will hear from us,” he said.

“We will have a vote tomorrow. We will move further forward,” Schumer said. “Stay tuned.”