A Republican-led effort to pass another border security bill failed Saturday, shortly before the House is expected to approve $95 billion in foreign aid funding.
The bill, which failed by a vote of 215 to 199, contained many components of the conservative border bill HR 2, which has not been amended by the Democratic-led Senate since its passage in May 2023.
The failed measure proposed the immediate construction of a border wall, asylum restrictions and the restoration of Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which Democrats despise.
The bill was seen as an olive branch to hardline conservatives who said they would not support President Johnson’s $95 billion foreign aid measure if it did not include additions to border security.
In rejecting their request, Johnson did not include border security in Saturday’s foreign aid bills and instead put the measure to a separate vote.
Now he faces a growing number of threats to his job for doing just that.
House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to get the 287 votes needed to pass a watered-down version of Republicans’ HR 2 called the End the Border Catastrophe Act on Saturday.
The bill would have immediately restarted construction of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, both despised by Democrats.
President Mike Johnson said earlier in the week he would send a bill containing much of the conservative HR 2 border bill to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer’s desk, but his attempt to do so failed Saturday.
The bill was put on hold, a vehicle to force a vote on legislation that requires two-thirds – or 287 members – of the House to vote “yes” for it to pass.
Notably, five Democrats voted in favor of stronger border security measures, including Reps. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, D-Wash.
Members and allies of the right-wing Freedom Caucus were angry that Johnson said he would not secure Ukraine’s border before securing the U.S. border, but he backtracked on that promise.
Johnson has suggested that securing the border is largely an executive authority that reports to President Biden.
Still, Conservatives have blamed Johnson for what they see as a bait-and-switch.
“That’s a joke,” House Freedom Committee Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., said of the border bill earlier this week. ‘That’s pretending. That’s theater. That’s noise.
Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said, “It’s a brilliant, theatrical object.”
“It’s the shining object for Republicans who say we have to do something about the border.”
But Johnson was hopeful it could become law.
‘We are going to include the key elements of HR 2, which is our legislation that House Republicans passed more than a year ago; “It’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust while he’s being mocked,” Johnson said earlier this week.
However, the law had some conservatives’ pet projects.
If approved, the measure would have immediately restarted construction of barriers along the US-Mexico border.
It would also have recreated Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., had requested that Speaker Mike Johnson include border security provisions in the foreign aid measures passed Saturday, but Johnson instead brought a border bill to a vote .
Additionally, their goal was to increase the number of Border Patrol agents, mitigate the executive branch’s catch-and-release immigration authority, and demand additional transparency from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The bill would also have provided financial relief for Texas’ costly and protracted immigration-related expenses.
But the defeat of the measure is not the only border security loss suffered by House Republicans this week.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted to dismiss articles of impeachment against DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas after the House voted to introduce articles against him in February.
The impeachment process in the Senate began and ended in three hours.
The House Homeland Security Committee previously spent more than half a year investigating Mayorkas before filing charges against him in January.
House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas in February for high crimes and misdemeanors related to his handling of the U.S. border and for lying to Congress.
If approved, the measure would have immediately restarted construction of barriers along the US-Mexico border. It would also have recreated Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
All that effort failed on Wednesday.
However, Republicans remained united on the issue and Republican senators used all the power they could to drag out the process.
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was able to dispense with the articles without even rendering a verdict on whether Mayorkas was innocent or guilty, a first in American history.