Bipartisan border bill loses support, fails procedural vote in U.S. Senate • Georgia Recorder

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate failed to advance border security legislation on Thursday as both parties seek to refine their immigration messaging ahead of the November election.

The Senate bill failed to advance on a procedural vote of 43-50. The chamber rejected the measure earlier this year as part of a broader foreign aid package. The bill, negotiated with the White House and a bipartisan trio of senators hoping to gain broad appeal, would have overhauled immigration law for the first time in more than 30 years.

Two of the Senate's lead negotiators for the border deal, Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma and Independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, voted Thursday against moving forward with the measure, protesting what they said was a frivolous process focused on political optics. The bill's third major sponsor, Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut, voted in favor.

The procedural vote to proceed with debate on the bill came as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sought to compare Democrats' approach to immigration policy with that of Republicans ahead of the November election. The issue is increasingly becoming a top concern for voters and remains a key campaign issue for the GOP and its presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

Both chambers are preparing further votes that appear to be aimed at highlighting election issues.

The Democratic-led Senate is set to vote on access to contraception and protection during in vitro fertilization (IVF) as early as next month, as Democrats continued their campaign on reproductive rights.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is pushing immigration-related legislation, such as banning non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which is rare and already illegal, while the GOP continues to highlight its disagreements with the White House over immigration policy.

Shortly after the Senate vote, President Joe Biden said in a statement that Senate Republicans were “putting partisan politics above our country's national security.”

“Republicans in Congress are not about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system,” he said. “If they had done that, they would have voted for the toughest border control in history.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, both Democrats from Georgia, criticized Senate Republicans for blocking the bill on Thursday.

“Today, Trump’s allies in Congress failed the American people and put our nation in danger,” Ossoff said in a statement. “I will continue to put maximum pressure on my Republican colleagues to work on the other side of the ballot to pass bipartisan border security legislation, and I continue to call on the Biden administration to use its executive authority to address the crisis.”

Warnock, who said he didn't agree with everything in the legislation, lamented the lack of debate at a Senate Democrats news conference after the vote.

“I've heard a lot of words today, but I haven't heard any explanation as to why they withdrew from this debate, and the reason is – we all know the reason – because they took their instructions from a defendant in a courtroom in New York,” Warnock said.

Lose support

The border security bill, S.4361, received fewer votes Thursday as a stand-alone bill than it did as part of the larger foreign aid package in February, when it failed on a 49-50 procedural vote. To pass bills in the Senate, 60 votes are needed.

The bill hasn't gotten all Democrats on board, something Schumer acknowledged as a possibility earlier this week.

“We don’t expect every Democrat or every Republican to support this bill,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “The only way this bill – or any other border law – can pass is with broad bipartisan support.”

But the bill failed to gain widespread support and lost support even among Democrats who voted for the foreign aid package.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said in a Wednesday statement that while he voted for the larger package in early February — largely because it included important aid for Ukraine — he would not do so this time because of the bill is too restrictive.

“I will not vote for the bill before the Senate this week because it contains several provisions that violate Americans’ shared values,” Booker said. “The bill would exclude people fleeing violence and persecution from seeking asylum and instead reinforce failed anti-immigrant policies that encourage irregular immigration.”

“Another cynical, political game”

Democratic senators who voted against introducing the bill included Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler of California, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Booker. Independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sinema also voted against it.

Sinema said she voted against submitting her own bill because she felt Democrats would use her bill to “point the finger at the other party.”

“Yet another cynical political game,” she said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote to advance the bill after Lankford voted against the bill he helped draft.

Lankford said Thursday's vote was “a pillar of support.”

“Everyone sees this for what it is,” he said. “It’s not a real attempt to legislate, but rather an attempt to spread political messages.”

Padilla, who voted against the larger package, said on the Senate floor Thursday that he was disappointed that Democrats voted on the bill again because it does not address the root causes of migration or create lawful pathways to citizenship for children arriving without authorization brought to the United States are known as dreamers, farm workers and non-citizens who have lived in the country for decades.

He urged other Democrats to vote no.

“The proposal before us was originally intended to be a concession, a ransom to be paid to Republicans in order to provide urgent and critical assistance to Ukraine,” Padilla said. “What is the point of this concession now? It’s hard to swallow.”

Senate Republicans accused Democrats of introducing the bill as a political ploy.

“One thing the American people need not wonder about is why Democrats in Washington are suddenly insisting on convincing their voters that they care about border security,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on Thursday in the Senate. “(Americans) know the solution is not cynical Senate theater.”

Biden called McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday evening and urged them to vote for the bill, but both Republican leaders rejected that objection.

First vote

Lankford, Sinema and Murphy introduced the bill earlier this year, optimistic that months of bipartisan negotiations could lead to the first immigration reform in decades.

But Trump rejected the measure, and after those senators released the text of the bill, House Republicans said they would join the former president. Senate Republicans then abandoned the agreement that they had said was necessary to pass an additional foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region.

The sweeping border security bill would have raised the bar for migrants seeking asylum, clarified the White House's parole powers, ended the practice of allowing migrants to live in U.S. communities while they await their asylum hearings, and Biden was given executive authority to close the southern border when the number of asylum applications reached high levels, among other things.

Dueling News

The day before Thursday's vote, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate held dueling news conferences about the bill.

Democrats, including Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, argued that the bill negotiated earlier this year would address the fentanyl crisis by deploying new scanning technology at ports of entry and increasing the staffing of customs agents.

Stabenow said she was tired of Senate Republicans saying “someone should do something on the border” and that Thursday's vote would give them an opportunity to address the southern border.

She was joined by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who spoke about how many people in their states have died from fentanyl overdoses.

Republicans argued in their news conference that Democrats would hold a second vote to protect vulnerable incumbents in contests in Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“It's an election-year political stunt designed to make our Democratic colleagues appear to be doing something about this problem without doing anything,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Wednesday.

She was joined by Republican Senators Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rick Scott of Florida, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, John Coryn of Texas, JD Vance of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Opposition in the House of Representatives

Even if the border security bill were passed by the Senate, it would have no chance in the House, where Johnson has promised it will be dead on arrival.

The Louisiana Republican called the measure a messaging bill in a news conference Wednesday and said Schumer was trying to “provide protection for his vulnerable members.”

And not all Democrats in the House of Representatives agreed with the bill negotiated in the Senate.

The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Nanette Barragán of California, criticized Senate Democrats for introducing the bill and urged them to abandon the effort.

“We are disappointed that the Senate will vote again on an already failed border bill, only dividing the Democratic caucus over extreme and unworkable enforcement-only policies,” they wrote in a statement.

“This framework, created in the wake of the Republican hostage crisis, does nothing to address the longstanding updates needed to modernize our antiquated immigration system, create more legal pathways, and recognize the tremendous contributions immigrants make to recognizing communities and our economy.”

Latino Democrats also expressed opposition to the bill when it was first released because it contained many harsh policies reminiscent of the Trump administration.

Georgia Recorder deputy editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.

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