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https://www.axios.com/2024/05/19/senate-bipartisan-border-package-vote
The Senate will consider a bipartisan border package this week, putting pressure on Republicans to pass a bill that they helped to negotiate months ago.
Why it matters: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is reviving the border measure to give cover to the White House to take executive action on immigration and to protect vulnerable Democrats in 2024.
Republicans torpedoed the same exact package earlier this year, and they are expected to vote against it yet again.
Driving the news: Schumer said in a letter to lawmakers on Sunday that the chamber will move the bill this week, as Axios first reported.
"We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border," Schumer said in the letter.
The bipartisan border deal would give the White House new tools to use to restrict asylum when numbers at the border inflate.
Yes, but: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the architects of the bipartisan package, said last week that he would not support the bill if Schumer brought it back to the floor.
The bottom line: This is an attempt from Schumer to shift the politics of the border, which Republicans have hammered Democrats on since the beginning of the Biden administration.
This gives vulnerable Democratic senators, like Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the chance to vote for stricter border measures. The GOP has made the border their top issue in key Senate election states like Montana, Ohio, Nevada and Arizona.
Multiple Democratic sources told Axios last week that they believe Schumer's border play this week is a precursor to executive action from the White House on immigration.
The Senate will consider a bipartisan border package this week, putting pressure on Republicans to pass a bill that they helped to negotiate months ago.
Why it matters: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is reviving the border measure to give cover to the White House to take executive action on immigration and to protect vulnerable Democrats in 2024.
Republicans torpedoed the same exact package earlier this year, and they are expected to vote against it yet again.
Driving the news: Schumer said in a letter to lawmakers on Sunday that the chamber will move the bill this week, as Axios first reported.
"We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border," Schumer said in the letter.
The bipartisan border deal would give the White House new tools to use to restrict asylum when numbers at the border inflate.
Yes, but: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the architects of the bipartisan package, said last week that he would not support the bill if Schumer brought it back to the floor.
The bottom line: This is an attempt from Schumer to shift the politics of the border, which Republicans have hammered Democrats on since the beginning of the Biden administration.
This gives vulnerable Democratic senators, like Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the chance to vote for stricter border measures. The GOP has made the border their top issue in key Senate election states like Montana, Ohio, Nevada and Arizona.
Multiple Democratic sources told Axios last week that they believe Schumer's border play this week is a precursor to executive action from the White House on immigration.
