Senate will again vote on bipartisan border package

By Stephen Neukam

On May 19, 2024

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill last week. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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.

This piece was republished from Axios

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