House approves Senate's version of $4.6B border bill as Pelosi blinks

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved the Senate’s $4.6 billion bill for the southern border’s humanitarian crisis without additional conditions after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blinked in her standoff with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Pelosi backed down on her demand that the final bill includes standards for treatment of migrants proposed by liberal caucus members after moderate Democrats rebelled and McConnell, a Republican,  said he would simply strip them out and send the bill back to the House.

“At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to her caucus announcing her reversal. “In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill.”

The House passed the Senate bill 305-102, without debate, and with 95 Democrats voting no. The bill now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The Democratic caucus’ left flank reacted with disappointment. Cracks appeared in what had been a unified Democratic caucus, which sought to put restrictions on immigration officials and to require that such basics as soap and diapers be given to migrant children.

“This Senate Bill will have us write a $4.6 Billion blank check (incl military $) for the border w NO accountability — just a verbal pinky promise. Trump is not to be trusted with protecting our immigrants,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx) tweeted.

Trump was pleased. He tweeted, "Bipartisan Humanitarian Aid Bill for the Southern Border just passed. A great job done by all! Now we must work to get rid of the Loopholes and fix Asylum."

After a procedural vote made final passage of the Senate bill clear, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), whose district includes El Paso, asked for a moment of silence for Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, who drowned this week.

A haunting photo of Ramirez and his daughter face down in the Rio Grande after trying to swim to the border to apply for asylum has stirred emotions and sparked debate.

“For those of us who are parents to see a toddler with her little arms wrapped around the neck of her father, there is nothing we wouldn’t do for our children, nothing, to give them a better life,” Escobar said tearfully.

“Oscar and Valeria represent the tens of thousands of migrants who have died as they tried to build a better life for themselves only to find that they are demonized and locked out of the promise that those of us who are natural born citizens are so fortunate to enjoy,” she said.

The standoff between McConnell and Pelosi lasted through the morning.

“We already have our compromise,” said McConnell in his opening statement on the Senate floor, noting that the Senate overwhelmingly passed it 84-8 after rejecting the House version in a 55-37 vote on Wednesday. “It’s time to make a law.”

Pelosi responded in her weekly news conference, “We’ll continue our conversations, without threats and without predictions but holding up this concern for children at the border, and children across America, as a moral imperative. And we will fight that fight.”

Pelosi had pinned her hopes on the White House, after speaking with Trump on Wednesday and getting a sense he might accept some changes to the bill, and then continuing the conversation with Vice President Mike Pence after Trump left for Japan for the G-20 conference.

But after Republican after Republican requested unanimous consent to bring the Senate bill to the floor for a vote, only to be turned down, moderate Democrats went public.

The House Problem Solvers Caucus, whose members include Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), tweeted a demand for a vote on the Senate bill. Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah.) tweeted, “Children are suffering at the border and we must act now to stop it.”

Suozzi, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) voted for the Senate bill. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) voted no.