Senate GOP blocks bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package in key vote

Republican lawmakers are warning that dysfunction in their chamber is not only wasting time but could also lead to setbacks in the general election in November as the party is crippled by infighting over their leadership and the best path forward for aid to Ukraine, Israel and the border. 

After Senate Republicans rejected a carefully negotiated border deal from their colleague Sen. James Lankford, the party finds itself back in the same position it was months ago. Many want to send money to Ukraine but disputes are erupting about the best strategy to get there.

Allies of McConnell’s say it’s not the leader who is causing the problem. Instead, they argue the issue is the compounding missteps in the House. 

“We are going to win West Virginia, we are going to win Ohio. We are going to win Montana. We have great candidates in all of them. I think Nevada and Arizona are at play. I am confident we are going to win back the Senate. The House… man they’ve gotta get some stuff working for them,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, told CNN on Wednesday.

Senators in both parties are engaged in an urgent round of talks to see if they can reach an agreement that would allow the Senate to open up debate on a $95.3 billion foreign aid package — a bill that would not include the bipartisan border deal that Republicans killed today.

GOP senators are demanding an agreement that would allow the Senate to vote on their amendments to the package. To reach a time agreement, all 100 senators have to sign off on it. So this process would take time to play out, sometimes many hours.

Right now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has left open the vote on the floor to begin the process of taking up the bill. This vote has been open for nearly two hours.

What happens next: Once this vote is closed, then the Senate must vote to overcome a filibuster and formally open up debate. That is the first key vote — and it would require 60 votes to get onto the bill. 

So far, there are not enough Republicans who say they’ll vote to advance the bill until an agreement over their amendments is reached.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski after the senate luncheons in the US Capitol on Tuesday, February 6.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted to advance the foreign aid package with the border bill, said it was unclear who could trust the GOP to negotiate after they scuttled the bipartisan bill on Wednesday.

She added: “I’ve gone through the multiple stages of grief. Today I’m just pissed off.”

The Senate’s border deal and foreign aid package aimed to implement strict limits along the US southern border that have not been previously enshrined into law and would, in effect, severely curtail asylum-seeking at that border — a break from decades-long protocol. It also included assistance for Israel and Ukraine.

Senate Republicans blocked the legislation Wednesday during a procedural vote following opposition from House Republicans and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

If it had passed in Congress, the bill would have dramatically change immigration law for the first time in decades. 

Here’s a look at the key changes that were in the bill:

Read more highlights from the deal here.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in the State Dining Room of the White House on February 6, in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden took harsh aim at congressional Republicans during a fundraiser in New York on Wednesday after the Senate GOP blocked a bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package from advancing.

Biden said he’d “never thought I’d see something like we are seeing now” on Capitol Hill, and blamed his opponent former President Donald Trump for calling and “threatening” lawmakers with “retribution” if they supported the package, which also included more American funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Republicans, Biden claimed, are “walking away because they’ve got Donald Trump calling and threatening them.”

The remarks, delivered behind closed doors to donors on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, were a preview of how Biden plans to use the failed border vote to his political advantage in the months ahead.

The Senate is now casting a procedural vote to begin the process of debating a foreign aid package without the border security provisions. It would give money to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

This vote only requires a simple majority to succeed. But this would eventually require another vote to overcome a 60-vote threshold in order to break a filibuster.

While the Senate may get a simple majority in this first vote, it is unclear whether the chamber will get 60 votes eventually, because Republicans are demanding an agreement to have their amendments considered to the underlying bill.

This vote comes after Senate Republicans blocked a major bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package earlier on the floor.

A procedural vote to advance the bipartisan border security deal and foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine and Israel has failed.

The vote was 49 to 50. At least 60 votes were needed for it to move forward.

Senate Republicans were expected to block it amid opposition from former President Donald Trump and top House Republicans.

Here are some of the notable votes:

What could come next: Schumer plans to force a procedural vote on a separate emergency aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan without the border provisions. This vote could happen later on Wednesday.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell voted to block the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, standing in solidarity with the majority of his conference to scuttle the effort. 

The vote is still ongoing, but Senate Republicans are expected to block it from reaching the 60-vote threshold to move forward.

The Senate floor on Wednesday.

The Senate is holding a procedural vote now on whether to advance the bipartisan border security deal and foreign aid package with aid for Ukraine and Israel.

Senate Republicans are expected to block it amid opposition from former President Donald Trump and top House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson. 

If Republicans block the larger package as expected, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to bring up a procedural vote on an emergency aid package for Israel and Ukraine that drops the border deal.

This screengrab from Senate TV shows Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on the floor on Wednesday.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, one of the top negotiators on the Senate border package, blasted Senate Republicans for rejecting the provisions, accusing them of wanting to use the border for “political theater,” and not actually wanting to solve the problem.

But she said she had a message to anyone looking to stage a political event at the southern border: “Don’t come to Arizona. Take your political theater to Texas. Do not bring it to my state.”

She accused Senate Republicans of flip-flopping on border security to boost their political profiles. “Less than 24 hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds. Turns out they want all talk and no action. It turns out, border security is not actually a risk to our national security, it’s just a talking point for the election,” said Sinema.

She concluded her remarks by saying that “the Senate has failed Arizona,” calling Senate Republicans’ behavior “shameful.”

Sinema has previously looked to fault Republican senators for sinking the $118 billion bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package, refusing to blame former President Donald Trump, who has sought to tank the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended his handling of Tuesday night’s attempted impeachment vote of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after a expected win turned into an embarrassing loss for the speaker, followed by a second vote loss on an Israel funding package. 

“We have to hold the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security accountable. Mayorkas needs to be held accountable. The Biden administration needs to be held accountable, and we will pass the articles of impeachment. We’ll do it on next round.”

When pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju that some members in the GOP conference – specifically Rep. Thomas Massie – have said Johnson’s inexperience and removing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was an “unmitigated disaster” for the GOP, Johnson conceded “it was a mess” but laid blame not on leadership but on the House itself. 

“Well, look, it was a mess what happened here but we’re cleaning it up. and Massey is one of my dear friends and colleagues and I don’t take this as a reflection on the leader. It’s a reflection on the body itself and the place where we come in this country,” he said. 

He said the House would “take a look” at whatever funding bill the Senate sends over.

“We’ll see what the Senate does. We’re allowing the process to play out and we’ll handle it as it is sent over,” he said. “We spend a lot of time on the House side waiting the Senate’s action and it’s frustrating sometimes, but that the way the process plays out.”

The Rio Grande divides El Paso, Texas, left, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on February 1. 

The White House warned Wednesday that failure to pass the supplemental border security funding they’ve asked for will have direct impacts on the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency.

The heightened warning comes after President Joe Biden previewed that he and his team will hammer the message that Republicans don’t want to secure the border “every day between now and November,” setting up an opening salvo on what’s expected to be a key general election issue for voters.

But Wednesday’s specificity regarding ICE marks a more tangible impact of the failure to fund border security.

Her comments came ahead of a key procedural vote in the Senate on the bill, which is expected to fail. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee announced the legislative text of the more than $95 billion foreign aid package that is stripped of the border provisions.

That money includes aid to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia and security assistance for Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine.

Remember: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to force a procedural vote on the supplemental spending bill on Wednesday. But before that vote, the Senate will vote on the original foreign aid bill with the border provisions still in it. But most Republicans are expected to vote against that bill, blocking its path.

Sen. James Lankford talks to reporters as he makes his way to a meeting at the US Capitol on February 5, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Sen. James Lankford, the top GOP negotiator on the border package, said he would vote to advance his own legislation, after telling reporters earlier this week that he might not vote for his own package, if he believes his colleagues need more time to look into it.

Lankford, who produced the Senate’s most conservative immigration plan in decades after tortuous talks with Democrats, watched the bill fall apart before his eyes this week as members of his own party, including former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, voiced their opposition. Lankford openly criticized his fellow Republicans for refusing to pass the border package.

Lankford told reporters that he has not decided if he will vote to advance the standalone foreign aid package, which contains assistance for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific, but not the immigration policy he worked on.

He also earlier noted that he expects that if the House is able to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a later date, it would be “dead on arrival,” in the Senate.

“If I can use the House term, it’ll be dead on arrival when it comes over. But it’ll still be the same policy even if Mayorkas left,” he noted. “We’re gonna have the same result because we got the same president who’s driving the policy.”

The White House is publicly lending its support to the national security aid package stripped of border provisions ahead of a key vote in the Senate later Wednesday.

Bates reiterated Biden’s commitment to passing border reform.

“Even if some congressional Republicans’ commitment to border security hinges on politics, President Biden’s does not. We must still have reforms and more resources to secure the border. These priorities all have strong bipartisan support across the country,” he said. 

Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he thinks a national security supplemental spending bill — stripped of border policy changes opposed by GOP senators — will get enough bipartisan support to get at least 60 votes to advance.

House Republicans are at a loss over their failure to effectively govern with their narrow majority amid ongoing dysfunction in the GOP-led House of Representatives and sounded off in conversations with CNN. The comments come after yesterday’s failed vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the collapse earlier this week of any potential border deal and persistent setbacks on passing full-year government funding.

“It’s frustrating for people like me who ran for Congress as a military veteran. As a Navy spouse, as a Navy mom, I’m worried about what’s going on in the world. There’s a lot going on right now,” GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia told CNN’s Manu Raju.

Kiggans represents a swing district encompassing Virginia Beach and its naval base, making a high percentage of her constituency military veterans.

GOP Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas pointed to the narrow Republican majority amid the ongoing and public dysfunction. 

“It didn’t help that former speaker McCarthy left early, it didn’t help George Santos leaving. I didn’t support his exit,” he said. “I was embarrassed for our conference for our party, because we can do better than we did last night.”

Three Republicans have left the House, making the Republican majority slimmer than ever. Former Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson resigned last month, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned at the end of last year and former GOP Rep. George Santos of New York was expelled last year.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer talks to reporters as he walks to his office at the US Capitol on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he thinks a national security supplemental spending bill — stripped of border policy changes opposed by GOP senators — will get enough bipartisan support to get at least 60 votes, the number it needs to succeed on a roll call vote planned for later Wednesday.

Remember: The bill, which will still need to be debated and voted on in the coming days, has desperately needed money for Ukraine as well as funds for Israel, Taiwan, and civilians in Gaza. Before that vote, the Senate will vote on the original foreign aid bill with the border provisions still in it. But most Republicans are expected to vote against that bill, blocking its path.

He also blasted Senate Republicans for rejecting the bipartisan border provisions, calling them the “chaos caucus,” and comparing them to the House GOP. 

“I expected the kind of cynical nonsense from the far right House MAGA Republicans, but it is shameful and embarrassing to see MAGA radicalism take hold here in the Senate,” Schumer said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries talks to reporters during a news conference at the US Capitol on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unloaded on House Republicans Wednesday for their “chaotic, dysfunctional and extreme” positions, but also enjoyed the victory lap Democrats are taking following Tuesday night’s plot-twisting vote that failed to impeach impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Three Republicans, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and California Rep. Tom McClintock, joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution. GOP Rep. Blake Moore joined the “no” side to allow the House GOP to bring up the vote again. Even though House Republicans suffered a massive defeat and failed to impeach Mayorkas on Tuesday, GOP leadership said they plan to bring up the vote again.

Jeffries batted away questions of whether Democratic leadership shared with GOP leadership how many members they’d have present for the Mayorkas vote, when Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green cast a vote that few — particularly GOP leaders — were expecting.

“It’s not our responsibility to let House Republicans know which members will or will not be present on the House floor,” Jeffries said.

Green had been away from the chamber following surgery last week, but arrived from the hospital and cast the vote that doomed the impeachment resolution.

The sweeping $118.2 billion legislative package would provide aid to key US allies abroad, including billions of dollars to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia and security aid for Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine.

According to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the bill includes roughly $60 billion to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel, and $20.23 billion for operational needs and capabilities at the border and to provide resources for the new border policies — an amount that rises above the $14 billion Biden initially requested for border security.

The package also includes billions of dollars for regional partners in the Indo-Pacific.

If Congress is unable to pass the package, senators will have to decide whether to try to pass aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan separately from border and immigration measures.

It’s unclear whether a foreign aid package would be able to pass on its own as many Senate Republicans have demanded tighter border security in exchange for aid to those allies.

Read more about the package here.

The US Capitol in January.

Senate Republicans are expected to tank a major bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine and Israel in a vote on Wednesday amid a torrent of attacks on the bill by former President Donald Trump and top House Republicans.

Why this matters: A failed vote will amount to a stunning rebuke by Senate Republicans of a deal that would have enacted restrictive border measures and was crafted in part by one of their own members – James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the chamber’s most conservative senators. Republicans had demanded that border security be part of the bill, but are now rejecting the deal after pressure from Trump, who is making the border a central campaign issue in his race for the White House.

The expected outcome is poised to leave aid for Ukraine and Israel, two key US allies, in jeopardy at a critical time. In the aftermath of the vote, lawmakers will face increasing pressure to pass foreign aid on its own without any border provisions – an uncertain prospect as some Republicans are opposed to further aid to Ukraine.

The Senate is set to hold an initial procedural vote on Wednesday that would require 60 votes for the bill to advance. There are expected to be defections on both sides of the aisle, but there has been a flood of GOP opposition to the deal in the wake of its release on Sunday evening.

If Republicans block the larger package as expected, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to force a procedural vote on an emergency aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan — and drop the new border deal — according to a Democratic aide.

Read more about today’s expected vote.