The Republican-run Senate this week will call up President Trump’s proposal to end the government funding standoff with a deal trading border wall money for an extension of legal protections for Dreamers.
But Democrats who run the House have already rejected Trump’s plan, and will instead take up a series of border security measures and government funding legislation that don’t include any money for a border wall.
Congress will take up these dueling approaches while a partial government shutdown, caused by the border wall fight, enters a second month.
House Democrats are expected to introduce their border security measures after they return Tuesday afternoon. They’ve already scheduled more votes this week on government spending bills that also exclude wall funding.
The Senate, meanwhile, introduced Trump’s compromise proposal Monday and plans to vote on it later this week.
The Senate bill, which incorporates the offer Trump made Saturday, would provide funding for the seven lapsed spending bills that fund 25 percent of the federal government, including nine departments and dozens of agencies that have been partially closed since Dec. 22. It would provide $5.7 billion for “construction of a physical barrier” along the Southwest border.
To win the backing of Democrats, who mostly oppose wall funding, the measure includes a three-year extension of legal protection for young undocumented immigrants enrolled in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program. It also provides a three-year extension for an estimated 325,000 people who have been granted Temporary Protected Status. The United States grants TPS to “nationals of specifically designated countries that face an armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary condition.” Most using the program are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti.
The Senate bill also includes $12.7 billion in disaster aid that Democrats passed in the House earlier this month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Trump’s proposal a “bold solution,” that “pairs the border security investment that our nation needs with additional immigration measures that both Democrat and Republican members of Congress believe are necessary.”
Neither party’s plan has the bipartisan support needed to clear Congress.
The Senate legislation, however, may pick up some Democratic support or become the basis of a deal that can later facilitate a bipartisan compromise.
At least one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is undecided, and others in the party appear open to future negotiations that might sweeten the deal further for Democrats.
The Senate is all but certain to reject the House measures because they will exclude the wall funding Trump is requiring to approve new spending bills.
Pelosi said she wants money spent not on a wall but on improving security at the ports of entry, through which most illegal drugs are smuggled into the United States.
The Democratic legislation is expected to direct more money to the ports and to add technology and personnel to other parts of the border. But it will not include funding for a wall or barrier Trump is requesting.
“Let’s use resources to expand the ports of entry,” Pelosi said last week.
Trump tweeted to Democrats Monday to “stop playing games,” and approve the Senate proposal.
