Dem
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GOP
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Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the lead Republican working on the border bill, yesterday said that there will not be a vote on the bill this week, as he and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) are working on some final sticking points. Nevertheless, he is optimistic that he, Murphy, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who is working with them, can hammer out something within a week or so. It's a very sensitive matter and every word counts in bills like this. But Lankford and Murphy are genuinely trying in good faith to get agreement on a bill, albeit for different reasons. Lankford wants to slow down illegal immigration. Murphy wants to defuse the issue for Biden. Sinema... well, who knows what she wants. We certainly don't know. Arizona is a border state, so if she runs for reelection, she might want some of the credit for a bill that slowed down immigration.
At the usual Tuesday Senate Republicans lunch, Lankford got a few questions. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) described the lunch as: "Several points of view came out ... at decibel levels a little higher than normal." Lankford said that all the senators wanted to be in the room when he was negotiating with Murphy, but that would never have worked.
Other Republicans had a slightly different take. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said: "I think everyone is questioning everyone's strategy on this." Other senators were less constrained and said the lunch was "pretty ugly."
One senator, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that some senators were openly attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to his face, something that hadn't happened before. McConnell's sin is that he wants a border bill now, not in a year when Donald Trump might be president, and when Democrats will vigorously oppose any bill. Some senators don't want to have to vote for a bill that is possibly dead on arrival in the House. Others are scared of incurring Trump's wrath if they vote for the Lankford-Murphy bill. Yet others don't want a bill unless they can get 100% of what they want. Apparently Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) had quite a shouting match. Another source said the scene was like "the House of Commons." We hereby apologize to our British readers. When Republicans say the Senate Republican caucus is like the House of Commons, that is not a compliment to the decorum of the House of Commons.
The bottom line is that McConnell wants to do something now and is willing to settle for whatever Lankford and Murphy can agree on. He knows that Democrats control the Senate, so a bill with 100% of the hard-liners' demands can't pass the Senate. He also knows that even if the Republicans get the trifecta in Jan. 2025, Democrats will filibuster any border bill to death. He thinks a bill might be able to pass now, but understands it will have to have strong Democratic support to do so. He is willing to take half a loaf. Some Republicans want the whole loaf and also a second loaf. (V)