WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate refused on Thursday to reconsider a bipartisan border security bill scuttled by the upper chamber earlier this year, in a move that Democrats will likely leverage against Republicans ahead of November’s presidential election.
Democrats’ gambit to bring the measure up for another vote on the Senate floor was regarded by many as doomed to fail. The initial version of the bill — which the upper chamber rejected in February — was the product of weeks of bipartisan negotiation. This time around, however, Republicans were staunchly opposed to the legislation.
A procedural vote to begin debate on the reduxed border security bill failed on a 43-50 vote, falling just below the 60-vote threshold needed to consider the measure.
But for Democrats, the effort to revive what had once been bipartisan border legislation was as much about sticking it to Republicans, who they have long argued are more interested in using immigration as a political cudgel than pursuing policy solutions.
During a news conference held after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer heaped blame on Republicans.
“It’s a sad day for the Senate and a sad day for America,” he told reporters, adding that while he did not expect to win every Democratic and Republican vote, he had hoped enough lawmakers would come together to get the legislation across the finish line.
“We gave Republicans a second chance to show where they stand,” said Schumer. “The contrast between Democrats and Republicans is clear today and will be even clearer in November. Democrats want to fix the border and get something done — Republicans want to give speeches, let the border fester and do absolutely nothing to fix the problem.”
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin piled on the reproval.
“Once again, Senate Republicans are putting Donald Trump over the American people,” Durbin said in a statement Thursday. “That’s exactly the opposite of what the American people feel and I’m disappointed, but not surprised, to see my Republican colleagues vote against the bipartisan border deal once again today.”
That criticism is a repeat of Democratic complaints earlier this year, when bipartisan agreement on the proposed border security bill evaporated amid criticism from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for November’s election. Lawmakers accused Republicans of blocking the legislation to help Trump’s campaign, for which immigration is a central issue.
Republicans, though, have argued that Democrats were engaging in a similarly political exercise by bringing back the moribund border bill.
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, the lead Republican negotiator on the original border bill, said Thursday that he wouldn’t back its reintroduction, arguing that it failed to iron out policy disagreements between the GOP and Democrats.
“Let’s get back to the table,” he said on the House floor. “Let’s actually resolve this.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell placed the onus for border security squarely at the feet of President Biden Thursday, writing in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the White House “has the tools to start fixing it.”
“If Senate Democrats are serious about border security, they’ll urge the president to start exercising his authority at the border,” he said.
It wasn’t just Republican lawmakers who were critical of the Democrat-led border vote. Arizona Independent Kyrsten Sinema, who supported the initial measure and blasted the Republican about-face on the policy as “rank partisanship,” also spoke out against renewed efforts.
“Today my Democrat colleagues have chosen more political theater instead of real efforts to solve this crisis,” Sinema said during floor remarks. She panned the move as a “show vote” and a “cynical political game.”
California Senator Alex Padilla branded the original border security measure a “ransom to be paid to Republicans,” posing it as a bargaining chip used to secure GOP support for aid to Ukraine.
“I can’t help but ask, what’s this concession for now?” Padilla said. “It surely cannot be our new starting point for negotiating immigration reform.”
But Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who led Democrats in negotiating the border bill, argued that the underlying legislation was strong and that lawmakers would do well to reconsider it.
“We worked very hard to achieve this compromise,” said Murphy. “It’s a good compromise. We shouldn’t give up after failing once … . We shouldn’t put away that compromise simply because, the first time, politics won out.”
If made law, the original bipartisan border bill would have hiked border security measures and enacted stricter rules for migrants claiming asylum in the U.S. The legislation would also have given the Homeland Security Department authority to shut down the border under certain circumstances.
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