Sen. Schumer tells Democrats he’ll reintroduce bipartisan border bill
Written by ABC AUDIO on May 20, 2024
(WASHINGTON) — Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will bring the bipartisan border deal that was negotiated early this year by a group of Senators back up on the floor this week for a standalone vote, he said in a letter to his colleagues released Sunday night.
The move to hold another vote on this legislation comes as Senate Democrats try to renew their push on the Southern border ahead of the 2024 election.
“We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border,” Schumer wrote in a letter to his colleagues. “I will be honest: I do not expect all Democrats to support this legislation. Many of our colleagues do not support some of the provisions in this legislation, nor do I expect all Republicans to agree to every provision. But that is often how bipartisan legislation must be shaped when dealing with an issue as complex and politically charged as our nation’s immigration laws.”
It’s ultimately very unlikely that holding a vote on this legislation now will lead to a different outcome.
The bipartisan border bill was negotiated over the course of several months by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Ct., Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. The legislation was negotiated after Senate Republicans said they would not vote to advance additional aid to Ukraine without the implementation of provisions to shore up the southern border.
Lawmakers worked behind the scenes for months to negotiate the legislation. But the bill, which made modifications to parole and asylum provisions, was rejected almost immediately after its release by almost the whole of the Senate Republican conference at the urging of former President Donald Trump.
“The former President made clear he would rather preserve the issue for his campaign than solve the issue in a bipartisan fashion. On cue, many of our [Republican] colleagues abruptly reversed course on their prior support, announcing their new-found opposition to the bipartisan proposal,” Schumer said in the letter.
Senate Republicans did eventually reverse course and approve funding for Ukraine without border provisions, so Schumer said he will now hold a separate vote on the border bill without anything accompanying it.
But Senate Republicans who spoke to ABC News last week said that if Schumer brought the border bill back up, it wouldn’t change their perspective on voting for it.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, who had championed the bipartisan border discussions before ultimately voting against advancing the final product in February, said Schumer is trying to distract from a border crisis that Tillis believes is ultimately President Biden’s making.
“Let’s just be realistic. They are looking at the polls. They’re getting hammered; Biden is getting hammered for the failure at the border,” Tillis said. “So Schumer is going to do everything he can to say ‘nothing to see here this failure is not real’ and it is real. And he knows it won’t pass.”
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