Congress unlikely to reach deal on Trump border bill before break
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump 's request for more border funding is running into another stumbling block on Capitol Hill.
The administration’s $4.5 billion spending request got a shot in the arm earlier this month when leadership in both chambers said they wanted to get a bill to the president’s desk before the July Fourth recess.
But lawmakers appear all but guaranteed to miss that deadline, with the House and Senate set to take up dueling bills. Congress is expected to start leaving town Thursday for the one-week recess and return in early July.
The two bills largely align on the amount of funding but differ on a number of key provisions, such as funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Defense Department.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said a conference committee, where the House and Senate will have to reconcile their bills, was all but inevitable.
“They’ve got their own version. We’ll work our will ... and obviously we’ll go to conference, and we’ll either hash it or not,” Shelby said.
The move will kick the fight over the president’s border money into at least next month, absent an eleventh-hour decision by either the House or Senate to take up the other’s bill. As of Friday afternoon, leaders of the two Appropriations committees hadn’t opened negotiations to try to reconcile their competing pieces of legislation before they go to the floor.
Shelby, asked if they could avoid a conference committee, added that “there will be a conference unless they decide to pick up our bill.”
Trump has requested a total of $4.5 billion in emergency border funding. Roughly $3.3 billion would have gone toward increasing shelters and care for unaccompanied minors in addition to processing arrivals, while $1.1 billion was for other border operations such as expanding the number of detention beds and providing more investigation resources.
Trump administration officials have argued they urgently need new funding to respond to a crush of migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and to shore up the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Without new funding, officials warn, the office will not be able to pay staff or grantees starting early next month.
Senators had hoped that a bipartisan deal — their bill cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee in a 30-1 vote — would help increase the odds that it would be picked up by the House and passed before the recess.
“We’re under the gun,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
The Senate bill would provide the administration a total of $4.59 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border, including $2.88 billion for HHS. But it also includes more money for the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security (DHS).
The bill also includes more than $1 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and more than $200 million for ICE.
Senators on both sides touted that the plan, while not perfect, was free of the sort of poison pills that would alienate either side.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, stressed that the Senate bill was a “compromise,” meaning that “no one is going to walk away with everything they wanted.”
But signs of trouble quickly emerged, with House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) warning in a brief statement that House Democrats “have concerns with the Senate bill as currently written.”
The Trump administration’s border and immigration policies have become a rolling point of controversy with Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Democrats have been wary of supporting anything that could, directly or indirectly, help enforce Trump’s immigration and border policies. Border funding was pulled out of a disaster aid package amid a stalemate over immigration-related provisions, including when HHS could share information with DHS about potential sponsors for unaccompanied minors.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the only lawmaker who voted against the Senate’s bill during the committee markup, said that while the Senate bill restricts Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using the information it receives from HHS about potential sponsors to deport immigrants, the bill did not enforce the restriction.
“There’s absolutely no way to enforce that, and as long as a family knows their information is going to be given to ICE, in the Hispanic community, they don’t want to step forward as sponsors,” Merkley added.
House Democrats dropped their own funding bill on Friday and will take it to the floor this week for a vote. Though the legislation largely lines up with the Senate’s top-line figure of more than $4.5 billion, it has several differences that could complicate the path to an agreement.
Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill does not include any Defense Department funding. It also doesn’t include $61 million to address a pay shortfall or $3.7 million in overtime costs for ICE.
It also includes myriad restrictions on how funds can and cannot be used, including conditions for how children should be treated, reporting and oversight requirements.
“Given the Trump administration’s history of abuses, Congress cannot and will not provide them with a blank check to continue its immoral and dangerous immigration policies," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
Durbin defended the Senate bill, saying they didn’t want to "appropriate a penny" to Trump’s "mass arrest policy." But he acknowledged that critics believe the Senate language doesn’t go far enough.
The House bill includes $5.2 million more than the Senate bill for ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility for background investigations and facility inspections, and it requires HHS to notify Congress within 24 hours if an unaccompanied child dies in ORR custody.
Democrats also included a provision that reinstates hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras after the administration slashed funding last week. A similar provision that would have blocked the administration’s attempt to reprogram the Central American aid was left out of the Senate bill.
So far, House Republicans haven’t signed on to the border supplemental, which was introduced by House Democrats. Unless the bill is able to pick up significant Republican support in the House, it’s all but guaranteed to go nowhere in the GOP-controlled Senate, which will vote on its own bill this week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has accused House Democrats of hand-wringing over additional border funding because of opposition to Trump.
“The Democratic House of Representatives has been more interested in denying this White House whatever it asks for, however necessary,” McConnell said during a floor speech last week. “It might be simply because it was this White House that was asking for it.”
A House GOP aide said that they are still reviewing the House legislation but characterized the bill as “definitely a Dem product.”
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 06/23/19 06:00 AM EDT
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Border Supplemental Bill is about to die. So much for the concerns for migrant people & children. They are going to leave the border in crisis and go on vacation.
So will President Trump then after the two week delay restart the ICE roundup and deportations? He gave them two weeks to get something together and it looks like the House Dem's are failing. This article is very telling, showing where the lack of governing (which is really compromise to come up with the best possible plan) is falling and why.
I would like to see Monday morning headlines of successful ICE raids to welcome these people back to work on July 8th. And I would love to see most of them voted out of office on election day. They are more concerned with party politics and have left most everything else in the dust.
As you know the Ice roundup of those who had been granted their time consuming right to a hearing and had been ordered out of the country, was sabotaged by a deep state official. Trump will have to somehow work around that as well. Obviously, there will be no money.
And I would love to see most of them voted out of office on election day.
I think that's the wish that get's granted. Concern about the southern border has steadily risen in the polls, thanks to democratic obstruction.
That is a huge question:
"Some Republicans applauded Trump’s latest move, saying the lingering threat of widespread immigration raids and deportations could finally convince Democrats to negotiate on long-stalled immigration talks.
“If it brings Democrats to the table I think that’s a pretty shrewd move,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “They seem to be totally impervious to any sort of persuasion or pressure, but I think it’s worth a try. At least he will have demonstrated his good faith.”
Actually, what's telling about this article is that it is NOT about immigration POLICY. It's a supplemental appropriations bill.
Which is exactly why the House Democrats are averse to giving more funding to ICE.
No, It's because they aren't going to help the President secure the border in any way. They hate Trump and they want the border open.
ICE doesn't 'secure the border' Vic.
That's right, It's me Vic. Don't get confused. I'm not one of the childlike souls you play tricks on. The dems are in total obstruction mode. You mention ICE - what do dems say about ICE?
Since that question isn't about to be answered, allow me:
Here is of Democrats who have said they would like to see the demise of the agency:
WTF are you talking about Vic? It sounds like you have a very low opinion of NT members.
They've passed bills, the Senate and McConnell is in obstruction mode.
One thing they DON'T say is that ICE is responsible for border security.
Just the opposite. I think many of them are decent and innocent. I don't like seeing them abused.
They've passed bills
They've passed partisan bills, bills that would NEVER get passed or approved by the other side, bills that were merely campaign positions.
One thing they DON'T say is that ICE is responsible for border security.
Another strawman argument.
How are these 'childlike souls' being tricked and abused Vic? Please be specific.
They've passed bipartisan bills.
The Boehner/Ryan House were all about passing bills that would NEVER get passed or approved by the 'other side' yet they persisted. How many times did they vote to repeal Obamacare knowing full well that Obama would NEVER sign it?
The VAWA is sitting on McConnell's desk. WHY?
Take for example the little stunt you pulled today. A comment was made about future possible actions on deportations. I responded not so much to that part of the comment, but merely a general statement to the total obstruction of democrats on anything involving border security. You thought you could imply that I thought ICE was doing Border Patrol. That kind of puts everyone on the defensive and we all end up talking about the ICE mandate instead of the seed. You're quite good at it, but your stepping up in class here.
They've passed bipartisan bills.
Thank you.
You see the only time House democrats can actually pass such partisan tripe into law is when they have a super majority in the Senate as they did in 2009 and when they passed Obamacare. Those are rare times. More often than not compromise is needed to pass legislation, but when Trump is President, Nancy Pelosi is satisfied with getting nothing done, so long as the President is obstructed at every turn.
You are hilarious.
Sure they have. Care to list the number of Republicans in the House voting for each? They are passing a shitload of partisan bills to further their agenda.
Would you care to discuss the other bills Reid was sitting on passed by a Republican House besides repealing the ACA? It is of course OK since Reid is a Democrat.
Since you asked.
Not the same bill as the original. I can understand about keeping guns out of the hands of those convicted of domestic violence or stalking; but WTF does transgender housing and being able to stay in facilities (including prisons) of the gender they self identify as have to do with a WAVA bill? They threw both in as poison pills knowing the Republicans would never accept them.
So yes, it is a partisan bill they know will have no chance of passing the Senate or Trump signing.
Next
Democrats can't even agree on funding to keep the government running; or an emergency funding bill to improve conditions at detention centers- how the hell are they ever going to agree on anything about immigration policy that will pass the Senate and Trump will sign? Open borders and no immigration laws is not a valid policy by the way.
They care more about illegal immigrants that are breaking US law than US citizens and legal immigrants. Simple enough to understand.
Trump has already said that he'd be willing to just do ANOTHER CR. Oh and BTFW, the House has already passed some 2020 appropriations bills. Sheesh.
Trump has the funding and the ability to improve the conditions at detention centers. All he has to do is pick up the phone.
They won't. The POINT is, the seeded article isn't ABOUT immigration POLICY.
Since we don't have 'open borders' and we DO have 'immigration laws', what is your point?
Technically true, in practice false.
"There were more than one million illegal aliens with final orders of removal in the country as of June 2, 2018, according to data obtained through a freedom of information request from the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), an anti-mass immigration advocacy law firm.
While there are 11 million and perhaps many more illegal immigrants in the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only arrests and deports small percentage of them—less than 260,000 people in fiscal 2018 ( pdf ).
This means even when a person is ordered to be deported, it would still take ICE about four years, on average to actually remove him or her from the United States."
That means even after the due process requirement has been satisfied, the final order of removal given, they are still here! How more open can the border be?
Oh BTFW do those appropriation bills contain any poison pills that the Senate will reject? You know, like the ones the Republican House passed that Reid sat on that you claim were all partisan non starters.
Right, just like the wall. The Dems will take him to court. Pretend they wouldn't.
Again, so what? It is about funding to upgrade the detention centers, create more beds, create more space, and improve the conditions. The Dems claim they care about all of the poor immigrants and children; but refuse to act on their behalf.
Yes, the thousands of illegal immigrants crossing daily are proof of that./S Dems are just so serious about border security.
Yes, we do. But, the Dems are only interested in doing away with the enforcement part of those laws (ICE); granting amnesty for the 11 million plus illegal immigrants already here; and getting their version of DACA passed. None of which will do anything to stop the flow of illegals into this country. Laws are only good if they are enforced.