Reid: Senate could return to pass border-security bill this week

The Senate could pass legislation to bolster security on the
U.S.-Mexico border as early as this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid’s (D-Nev.) office said Tuesday.

The House on Tuesday quickly passed the $600 million bill after a voice
vote and limited debate, setting up a final vote in the Senate, which is
in recess.

{mosads}Spokesman Jim Manley said “the hope is that we can pass the bill
by [unanimous] consent by the end of the week.”

“The question is whether Republicans want to try and make this an
issue or whether they will allow us to get it done quickly,” he said.

Should the Senate return to Washington for a vote, it would mark the
second time a house of Congress returned from recess to act on
legislation. The House reconvened this week to vote on a $26 billion
state aid bill, along with the border-security measure.

If the Senate decides to pass the bill via unanimous consent, it would
not require all 100 senators to return to the Capitol. According to
Manley, just one senator from each party would have to be present to
agree to pass the bill.

But consent would require that all members of the Republican conference
agree to let it pass.

A GOP leadership aide said: “There is an effort to open the Senate just long enough to pass it by unanimous consent. But that means checking in with 100 senators in 50 states and some foreign countries.”

The House bill is identical to a version already passed by
unanimous
consent in the Senate last week. But House leaders on Monday determined
they would
have to take the text of the Senate legislation and make
it a House bill so the eventual law would not violate the originating
clause of the Constitution, which requires revenue bills to originate in
the House.

The bill funds more than 1,000 additional federal agents for the
southern border, and allows the dispatching of unmanned aerial drones to
help monitor border crossings.

This post was updated at 8:42 p.m.