House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday abandoned efforts to pass a $4.5 billion border funding bill laced with progressive provisions after facing opposition from the Senate and her own moderate wing.
The decision came after Pelosi, D-Calif., was assured during a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence that the administration would add extra funding to aid migrant children held at border shelters.
The House will instead vote on a bipartisan $4.6 billion Senate bill that passed 84-8 on Wednesday.
Pelosi advised her caucus about the vote in a memo Thursday afternoon, taking a jab at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for announcing he would reject the proposed House border bill.
“At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available,” Pelosi said. “Therefore, we will not engage in the same disrespectful behavior that the Senate did in ignoring our priorities. In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill.”
House passage will clear the measure for President Trump, who is expected to sign it.
Pelosi agreed to pass the Senate bill, despite objections from Democrats, as time ran out and the situation along the southern border has grown more urgent.
Border officials are running out of funds to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of migrants apprehended in recent months. More than 144,000 crossed into the country illegally in May.
“This is an emergency,” McConnell said. “We need to do it now.”
The measure is expected to pass the House without the support of many in the large progressive wing of the caucus.
The Senate bill excludes provisions that progressives demanded, such as requirements and accountability standards for the treatment of illegal immigrants who have inundated the southern border.
The Senate bill also includes money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and extra funding for the military to send troops to the border.
Progressives are staunchly opposed to ICE and military funding because they oppose efforts to either stem the massive influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border, or efforts to deport those who have remained here illegally.
Pelosi had little leverage to push for the progressive version of the border funding bill after the Senate passed their bipartisan version with overwhelming support on Wednesday.
Some Democrats in the House complained that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., should have led his caucus to oppose the Senate bill and insist on the House version.
A Senate source noted that even House Democratic leaders had called the Senate version a good bill.
