(RepublicanNews.org) – The Republican Party is currently in a state of disarray over the so-called “border bill,” the text of which was finally released for public scrutiny.
On Monday, February 5th, the day after the Senate Republican chief negotiator gave a thumbs up to present the $118 billion spending bill, most GOP members of the Senate threatened to block the bipartisan package tying asylum restrictions and border security measures together with foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and more. After an emergency closed-door meeting, most agreed that more time was necessary to discuss amendments to the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell initially backed the proposal but is now advising Senate Republicans to vote against it now that he sees which way the tide is going. Critics of the party point out that it was Republicans who demanded a compromise package that would only approve the foreign aid if the bill included funds for border security and immigration law reform, and now they are rejecting the package after getting what they asked for.
But Republicans don’t believe the bill delivers the measures needed to secure the border, and House Speaker Mike Johnson and other House Republicans already determined it will be “dead on arrival” if it does happen to pass the Senate.
President Joe Biden blames the bill’s failure on former President Donald Trump, who he accused of derailing the bill after it was painstakingly negotiated. Trump advised Republicans in Congress multiple times to not compromise on the border and to kill the bill if it doesn’t include absolutely everything needed to stop the immigration crisis.
As the GOP debated an acceptable level of compromise, Democrats spitefully proposed bringing the supplemental spending bill to the floor but only with the foreign aid proposals and without any of the border security and asylum reform proposals. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that this version, stripped of the changes to border policy opposed by Republicans, would receive enough support from both sides to garner at least 60 votes.
One of the border bill’s top GOP negotiators, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, blasted her colleagues for rejecting the package, accusing them of “political theater” to advance their personal agendas.
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