A bipartisan border security bill failed again in the Senate on Thursday.
The Hill’s Al Weaver reports that the bill drew less support than it did when it flopped back in February.
That outcome was always expected, and now Republicans and Democrats will resume the blame game as polls show border security and immigration are among the top issues on the minds of voters.
Democrats have been on defense, and Thursday’s vote offered a chance for vulnerable senators up for reelection to vote in favor of the border security measures.
Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Bob Casey (Pa.) can tell voters back home they voted for the failed measure twice.
Trump urged Republicans to vote against the bill back in February as he sought to keep a potent issue on the table ahead of the November election.
The bill had no shot this time around. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who was one of the architects of the bill, voted against it on Thursday.
Republicans blasted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for reviving the bill, calling it a show-vote to protect his vulnerable members.
Read more: Schumer shifts Senate into campaign mode.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Biden earlier this week that Republicans would not support the bill and instead urged the president to use executive actions to stem the record flow of border crossings.
The White House has said it does not have the authority to act on its own.
Biden fired back at Senate Republicans in a statement following the vote:
“Congressional Republicans do not care about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system. If they did, they would have voted for the toughest border enforcement in history. Instead, today, they put partisan politics ahead of our country’s national security.”
Meanwhile, the House passed a bill on Thursday to ban non-citizens from voting in elections that take place in Washington, D.C.
The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Rebecca Beitsch explain why House Republicans targeted this issue:
“The D.C. Council approved a measure in 2022 that added eligible noncitizen residents to the definition of a qualified elector for local elections. Seven D.C. voters filed a lawsuit against the city’s Board of Elections, but a federal court upheld the law in March, dismissing the suit after a judge determined the plaintiffs could not prove they were harmed by the policy.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) fumed at House Republicans for meddling in local matters:
“D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and brown, are worthy and capable of self-government.”
