The House of Representatives on April 20 rejected another border security bill.
In a vote under suspension of the rules, the House voted 215–199 to block the bill. Because it was not considered under normal rules, it required a two-thirds majority to pass.
The bill was supported by all Republicans and was opposed by all but a handful of Democrats. Five Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the bill. But Republican support alone was not enough to push it over the finish line with the higher threshold.
The vote comes as the House, on the same day, is expected to approve $95 billion in foreign aid funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The Ukraine aid package included $300 million for Ukraine’s border security.
The legislation was considered under suspension of the rules because it had been blocked by conservatives on the House Rules Committee last week in protest to leadership’s decision to move forward on foreign aid legislation.
In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)—among those who blocked the bill in the Rules Committee—said, “Sorry, not sorry, for opposing a crappy rule that is a show vote/cover vote for funding Ukraine instead of border security.”
The move came after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reneged on an earlier promise to not put Ukraine funding on the floor without border concessions from Democrats.
Mr. Johnson likely gave the bill a chance on the floor in an effort to assuage Mr. Roy and other conservatives who have been critical of his approach to foreign aid.
It comes amid an unprecedented crisis of illegal immigration along the southern border.
Border Patrol has encountered more than 7.6 million illegal immigrants trying to cross the border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, with millions more gotaways estimated to have entered undetected.
Mr. Johnson said the new bill, the “End the Border Catastrophe Act,” is based on H.R. 2—Republicans’ landmark border security bill of the 118th Congress—and outlines many of the same policies.
“We’re gonna put the key elements of H.R. 2, which is our legislation that House Republicans passed over a year ago; it’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust as they mock it,” he said.
“We’re gonna reintroduce that, end catch and release, reinstate ‘Remain in Mexico,’ fix the broken asylum process, fix the broken parole process (it’s been abused), rebuild portions of the wall.”
‘Theatrics’
The move received criticism from some of Mr. Johnson’s peers in the House, who have dismissed the tagalong border bill as “theatrics.”
“It’s a theatrics, shiny object; it’s the shiny object for Republicans that are saying, ‘We got to do something for the border,’” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said to the media following the bill’s unveiling.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called it “a joke,” “pretend,” and “theater.”
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who was among the 55 Republicans that opposed the advancement of the foreign aid package last week, argued that it was wrong for the United States to be securing the borders of other nations amid the ongoing crisis at the southern border with Mexico.
“We’re sending $300 million for the state border guard services of Ukraine … yet won’t spend the same kind of money here to secure our own border,” Ms. Hageman said.
She called the foreign aid legislation “a parade of horribles that is absolutely a terrible bill for terrible policy, spending money that we don’t have.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) argued that Mr. Johnson should have put a clean Israel bill on the floor and attached a “Remain in Mexico” policy requirement to Ukraine legislation.
“Instead what we have is something that’s going to further divide the Republican conference and … just make it harder as we go forward,” Mr. Ogles said.
The failure of the bill represents another dead-on-arrival border bill in Congress.
Republicans’ H.R. 2, the first border bill proposed during the 118th Congress, was passed by Republicans near the start of the session but has not even received a vote in the Senate.
Another border proposal negotiated in the Senate between Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) failed to move in the House after Republicans criticized it, saying it would only worsen the situation along the southern border.
Had this most recent foray into border policy succeeded, it likely would have met the same fate as H.R. 2 in the Senate.
Steven Katte contributed to this report.
“We’re sending $300 million for the state border guard services of Ukraine … yet won’t spend the same kind of money here to secure our own border,” Ms. Hageman said.
A country unwilling to defend it’s own borders, is a country doomed to fall.
“Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”,,,nor the Country of a successful blessed Christian nation.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”,,,If we allow the government body to house, medicate, feed and provide for unclean political parties and people with unclean dishonest intentions,,,, soon our wealth and spirt of law-abiding people is no longer our own. A holy spirit cannot dwell in an unclean body or an unclean temple of government, and will soon flee from a democrat on the hunt, like an honest citizen these days fleeing democrat run states and cities.
When the clean temple is abandoned of light, like Nature itself, abhorring a vacuum, soon the darkness comes in to replace it with unclean spirits and people of evil intentions, and things become much worse than before. It’s time to clean house and clean government beginning with the government Houses of THE PEOPLE, and the borders be slammed shut like the gates of heaven are to those of proven lawbreaking mindsets..
WHICH IS What the traitorous democrats (AND RINOS) want!
Instead of enabling and funding more Biden 5th columnists with cash used to welcome, feed, house then process those whose first act upon arrival is to break our immigration laws, better to fund a new arm of federal police with the sole capability to hunt down all 10 million law defilers that Biden waved in, and eject them from the country faster than our Congress can reject their deceptive border Bills that just enlarge the problem, never solve the problem. This is no Border Security bill, but a bill that only offers security to people that thumb their noses at our laws, then laugh themselves all the way from the banks of our border rivers to the banks of our financial institutions in redistributed wealth that rewards unclean criminals and punishes the clean American law-abiding.
Actually the democrats rejected the border bill.
Anything less than total repatriation of anyone who came in illegally is just more smoke and mirrors and bowing down to the establishment interests with Congressional slights of hand. I’m tired of bills that promise everything, to placate the masses and take the corrective heat off the tough decisions with new rules nobody intends to enforce anyway.
More and more i am left wondering “WHAT POINT is there in voting for ANY GOP candidate, when they are just as wrong for our nation as the entire bloody Dem party is..
We had a boxer security law and Biden stopped it. We recently passed another border bill But trump stopped it. Both parties needs to pull their heads out their Arse and fix the border
The bill Trump was against, was an amnesty bill that the democrats called security!
THE SENATE bill, was essentially granting amnesty for 5000 folks A DAY (which equates to 1,825,000 million) to come in, without ANY WORRY.
HOW THE HELL IS THAT border security?
Why isn’t the headline, “Democrats reject border security bill “ all the republicans voted yes for it?
See how even conservatives propaganda outlets cover for the democrat party communist!
The headlines should read “House Rejects”,,,and just leave it there which describes who and what they are.
BECAUSE NOT every republican voted for it, based on the # of votes they reported..
You ever notice how there is never any hesitation for Congress to throw billions of dollars overseas, while funding to protect the homeland and help Americans gets defeated. Washington is corrupt, inept, inefficient, and filled with egotistical elitists who love the accolades and kickbacks that come from foreign leaders. It will take nothing less than a complete overhaul of our bloated government to force the bureaucracy and our elected leaders to honor the founders’ principles, of the people for the people, by the people.
Which makes you wonder, WHY DO WE keep electing these traitors… Its almost to the point i’d love to see every single one of them, kicked OUT Of congress, permanently.