Senate border talks trudge on with no deal in sight
December 05, 2023 08:23 AM
Senators are working to salvage a bipartisan border security agreement at the center of President Joe Biden’s $106 billion defense spending legislation.
Democrats and Republicans involved in the talks said on Monday that negotiations have been at a stalemate since Friday, though progress had ground to a halt in the days prior. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Senate will move forward with the legislative package as soon as Wednesday, even if negotiators have not reached an agreement on the border measure.
“Progress on the national security package has been on ice for weeks because Republicans have injected partisan and extreme immigration measures into the debate,” Schumer said.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the lead Democratic negotiator, told reporters there was “no path” to a deal, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Washington Examiner he was “not optimistic right now” about the likelihood of reaching an agreement.
Murphy said that to get talks back on track, Republicans would have to make a new offer or “come to the table with some general ideas on where we can go next.”
“It became pretty apparent by the end of last week that we were the only ones compromising,” the Democratic senator said. “There’s still an opportunity to come back to the table. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to resolve this, but we reached a stopping point.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the top Republican in the talks, expressed surprise at reports on Monday of the discussions being dead, as did Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
“Everyone’s still at the negotiating table,” Lankford told reporters. “The real story is we’re actually trying to work through it, but we can’t get through it fast enough. There’s still a long way to go. We’ve got some areas we’ve got some resolution on and other areas that are big and significant that are unresolved, and we’ve not been able to make progress on those.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defended his GOP colleagues on Monday against what he called “bizarre public scoldings” from the White House and Democrats, saying that Republican negotiators are “still at the table working diligently on solutions.” He and Schumer are eager to reach an agreement to pass the entire legislation, which combines assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan with the disputed border security measure.
Republicans have cautioned since Biden sent Congress the $106 billion request that Ukraine aid has no path to passage in the House without a substantial set of border policy changes. As a result, a bipartisan coalition of senators has been working on a border agreement for weeks. The talks have centered on possible changes to federal asylum policy and how the Biden administration uses the humanitarian parole authority.
Schumer and McConnell have fully supported the effort to combine Israel and Ukraine aid. The two have also backed the inclusion of border security, though they differ on some specifics, as a means to push the bill through both chambers. Taiwan assistance was additionally included to help broaden support for the bill.
If negotiators can reach an agreement, that legislation is expected to pass the Senate with bipartisan support but could face a tough path forward in the House without a major set of border policy changes. Even if Republicans were to secure concessions from Democrats in the Senate talks, the legislation would face considerable opposition from House GOP lawmakers who oppose Ukraine aid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said it would be easier for his chamber to separate the bills and for Senate border deal negotiators to accept the House’s partisan immigration reform bill, even though that measure cannot pass the Democratic Senate.
Were Schumer to concede to Johnson on taking apart the package, individual pieces of legislation could have difficulty passing on their own in the Senate. Democrats control the chamber 51-49 and need full party support and nine Republicans to pass legislation altering border policy.
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The Senate does not have a clear path to pass the supplemental in pieces. The Ukraine funding would lack GOP votes, but the border funding would cause at least a few Democratic defections.
Packaged together, the measure could have enough votes to cross the finish line in both chambers, though the timing would be far from ideal. The chamber will spend December working on the supplemental deal, finishing its appropriations process, and confirming hundreds of stalled military nominations.