House passes unchanged version of Senate border bill
House Democrats passed the clean Senate border appropriations bill with none of the additional migrant child protections or accountability measures sought by Democrats. The vote was 305 yeas and 102 nays. The Senate measure provides about $4.6 billion in emergency supplemental funding for border security.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues earlier in the day that she was disappointed that the Senate had been disrespectful in ignoring the House Democrats' priorities, she said, "The children come first. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available."
"In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill," Pelosi wrote.
Only 129 Democrats voted for the bill, while 95 Democrats voted against it, including many members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. It passed with Republican help, as 176 Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Only seven Republicans voted against it.
Earlier Thursday, the last day before Congress was to leave for its July 4 recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had declared that he would not accept changes to the Senate measure sought by Pelosi and her caucus. On Thursday afternoon, he accused House Democrats of wanting to "throw a far-left partisan wrench into the whole thing."
"If House Democrats send the Senate back some partisan effort to disrupt our bipartisan progress, we will simply move to table it. The United States Senate is not going to pass a border funding bill that cuts the money for ICE and the Department of Defense. It's not going to happen. We already have our compromise," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
The Senate's bipartisan border funding bill passed on Wednesday with an overwhelming majority of 84 yeas to 8 nays. McConnell had expressed hope late Wednesday night that the substantial bipartisan majority that passed the Senate bill would convince the House to quickly pass the Senate measure.
The original House version of the $4.5 billion border funding bill included oversight provisions to hold the administration accountable for the conditions at migrant facilities, and provided no funding for border wall construction. Some progressives in the House nevertheless voted against the bill because it funded Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.
Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence spoke for nearly an hour on Thursday, according to senior Democratic aides. A spokesperson for the vice president confirmed to CBS News that the two "discussed potential administrative fixes" and described the call as "cordial."
Pence and Pelosi's offices have been discussing administrative steps that could be taken to set out minimum standards of care for migrant children in detention facilities. The goal of the talks was to see if there were actions the administration could take that would obviate some of the amendments House Democrats have been trying to attach to the Senate border funding bill.
Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference that she would still prefer a legislative rather than administrative fix — and Democrats are skeptical that Pence can back up his promises with real action, CBS News' Nancy Cordes reports.
Emily Tillett and Grace Segers contributed to this report
