Republican senators want a vote on a pandemic-era immigration limit before they'll consider moving forward on $10 billion in Covid aid. Without agreement among all 100 senators, the Senate will be unable to take up and quickly move the bill this week.
announced a deal on billions for therapeutics, vaccines and testing, GOP senators threw in a wrench that could mean Congress will break with nothing. Senate Republicans say they want a vote on an amendment that would keep in place the Title 42 border restrictions, which allows limits on immigration due to the pandemic. Without one, they say the bill can’t proceed.told reporters Tuesday that “there’s going to have to be an amendment on Title 42 in order to move the bill.
“I don’t think there are probably 10 Republican votes at the moment for a process that doesn’t at least include an amendment vote on Title 42, perhaps among other amendments,” said Sen., McConnell’s top deputy. He said many Republicans don’t want to pass the bill anyway, so they’ll demand amendment votes as a price to move forward: “Our members are pretty dug in.”
The impasse could stall for weeks what Biden called much-needed coronavirus aid, unless senators can reach a deal before they plan to leave on Thursday or Friday. Without a breakthrough, the aid won’t be approved until late April or perhaps May. Republicans blocked a vote advance the bill on Tuesday, though Schumer can quickly bring it back up if there’s a deal on amendments.
Senate Democratic leadership is resistant to the idea of giving a vote on Title 42, and there’s also pent-up demand among the party to add more Covid aid money for restaurants. Additionally, Democratic leaders face the possibility that the immigration amendment could actually pass and make the bill impossible to turn into law.
A growing number of Democratic senators are expressing stern opposition to Biden’s lifting border-crossing restrictions, enough that Republicans could win an amendment vote, particularly if it’s at a simple majority. Still, it’s not clear those Democrats would vote to stick Title 42 language into the coronavirus bill, since adding that language would almost surely lead to a dead end in either the House or Biden’s desk.
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