House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under pressure to approve funding for the border crisis this week, sent a memo to rank-and-file Democrats calling for the Senate, President Trump, and House lawmakers to negotiate on a border funding deal.
“We are calling upon the Trump administration and the Senate to engage in an immediate conference to do the best we can for the children before we leave for the 4th of July,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats Thursday.
Pelosi’s announcement comes moments after the House Rules Committee approved a border funding bill that combines a bipartisan Senate measure with progressive provisions that were part of a measure House Democrats passed on Tuesday.
The House will vote later today on the second border measure the Rules Committee approved Thursday morning, a Democratic aide confirmed.
Pressure increased on Pelosi to pass a compromise bill after the Senate overwhelmingly approved a $4.6 billion bipartisan border funding measure in an 84-8 vote.
The House Thursday morning amended the Senate bill with some of their progressive provisions, such as a 90-day limit on detaining illegal immigrant children.
But that bill faces potential opposition from House progressives as well as Senate Republicans as both parties prepare to leave town for the July 4 recess.
Pelosi didn’t address the new measure directly in her note to fellow Democrats, but refers to some of the provisions in it.
She also praised Democrats for their vote on the progressive border funding bill the House passed on Tuesday, which Republicans in the Senate rejected.
“Our leverage with the Senate and the Administration is strengthened by the unity of House Democrats,” Pelosi said in the memo. “I’m very proud of the vote taken on Tuesday. I thank all of our colleagues for their courage and for their humanity.”
Pelosi’s progressive wing insisted on language in that measure providing services and accountability for the treatment of illegal immigrants. The measure would prevent money from being spent on deterring illegal immigration at the southern border, or for deporting illegal immigrants.
Progressives have not yet indicated whether they will support the latest border funding bill, which includes some, but not all of the progressive provisions they fought to have included in the first House-passed version.
Pelosi is tasked with finding a measure than can win over House progressives and sill earn Trump’s signature.
“The humanitarian emergency at our southern border challenges the conscience of America, and we must act,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats. “For the children, we must do the best we can.”
