{"id":27601,"date":"2024-05-24T03:30:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T08:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27601"},"modified":"2024-05-24T03:31:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T08:31:03","slug":"senate-downs-border-bill-for-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27601","title":{"rendered":"Senate downs border bill for second time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Senate voted down the bipartisan border bill Thursday, marking the second time it has been blocked in a matter of months as Democrats look to shore up their political troubles and give President Biden\u2002<\/u><\/a>and incumbent senators a boost in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a widely expected outcome, senators voted 43-50 to take down the proposal, which was negotiated over the fall and winter by Sens. James Lankford\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Okla.), Chris Murphy\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema\u2002<\/u><\/a>(I-Ariz.). The bill lost support compared to the previous vote in February, which fell in a 49-50 tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headlining those who flipped their votes this time around was Lankford, who was the lead GOP member throughout negotiations before the border bill met an unceremonious death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oklahoma Republican told The Hill last week that Schumer and Murphy didn\u2019t discuss the renewed border push with him and that he was siding with his GOP colleagues, arguing this current push was inherently political<\/u><\/a> and that Democrats were not interested at this point in getting a legislative result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday is not a bill. Today is a prop. Today is a political messaging exercise,\u201d Lankford said ahead of the vote. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t help us as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Lankford in flipping their votes to no were Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Sinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) voted against the bill in February, but was absent Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.) said repeatedly in recent weeks that he wanted to put the bill on the floor again to drive home the point<\/u><\/a> that former President Trump and his supporters killed the bill for political purposes, and that Democrats want action at the border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople want us to get things done. People want us to come together. And when they hear that the only reason Republicans backed away from this bill is not that it wasn\u2019t strong enough, but that Donald Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>said he wanted chaos at the border, they don\u2019t like that,\u201d Schumer said Thursday on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe public is on the same page. And in the polling data, Democrats, Republicans, and independents are all on the same page: act on a bipartisan bill, get something done,\u201d he continued. \u201cDon\u2019t play political games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans have panned those claims and maintain Schumer is the one pursuing a nakedly-political agenda, and Democrats have failed to secure the border throughout Biden\u2019s White House tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The border vote was also viewed by many as an attempt by Schumer to lend a hand to a number of his Democratic colleagues who are staring down tough reelection fights in November as the border is turning into a potent issue in red and purple states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to get right, and they know they need political cover. To me, that\u2019s all this is about,\u201d Sen. John Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>(S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Wednesday. \u201cHe knows this is not going to get an outcome. It\u2019s not going to pass the House. We\u2019re not making law here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about political messaging, and they understand it\u2019s a big political vulnerability for them, and I get why he\u2019s doing what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Thune continued. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think this is going to work, because people realize who owns the issue of the border, and that\u2019s the Democrats.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, fiscal 2024 has averaged 217,000 migrant crossings<\/u><\/a> per month, with more than 300,000 crossings marking the high-water mark in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no mystery how we got here. President Biden and Vice President Harris were promising open borders four years ago on the campaign trail. And they started following through literally on day 1,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The border bill emerged out of tense negotiations among the three, along with the Biden administration and staffers for Schumer and McConnell, as part of a bid to gain House Republicans\u2019 backing of the national security supplemental and aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans lined up en masse against it within hours of its release in February, dooming it from the get-go. That prompted Schumer to plow ahead on the aid package, which included funds for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and for humanitarian purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) eventually relented and moved ahead with his national security plan in April, which also included a potential ban of TikTok. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate voted down the bipartisan border bill Thursday, marking the second time it has been blocked in a matter of months as Democrats look to shore up their political troubles and give President Biden\u2002and incumbent senators a boost in the process. In a widely expected outcome, senators voted 43-50 to take down the proposal, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1274,1327,2066,4498],"class_list":["post-27601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bill","tag-border","tag-senate","tag-veto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27603,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27601\/revisions\/27603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}