WASHINGTON -- The Senate Appropriations Committee voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a $4.6 billion emergency spending bill for the U.S.-Mexico border, acting with bipartisan urgency to address the surge of migrants arriving from Central America.
The committee vote was 30-1, with Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., casting the only "no" vote. Approval by the full Senate is expected next week, although negotiations continue in the House.
The legislation responds to a spending request President Donald Trump's administration sent to Capitol Hill last month to address the overwhelming numbers of Central American families and minors arriving at the border, which have pushed U.S. facilities and personnel past capacity. More than 675,000 migrants have arrived at the border so far in the fiscal year, a spike in the numbers.
"Our personnel on the ground are doing everything they can to secure the border and care for these vulnerable populations. But their determination has outstripped their resources," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "The situation is past the breaking point. We must act."
The Senate legislation includes $2.88 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to address the large numbers of unaccompanied children arriving at the border. Through May, nearly 51,000 children have been referred to the department since the fiscal year began in October, an increase of almost 60% compared with the same period last year. None of the money can be used to fund the border wall.
The department has been running short of funds, and earlier this month the administration canceled English classes, recreational programs such as soccer, and legal aid for children in federal holding facilities. The funding bill will allow the department to resume those services and expand its shelter capacity, the Appropriations Committee said.
Without action, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the division that is tasked with caring for unaccompanied children, will run out of funding by the end of this month and even more services would have to be cut, senators warned.
"This is not who we are as a country. We need to take action," said the Appropriations Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. "This package provides the resources necessary to ensure that children and families fleeing violence and poverty receive appropriate medical care and legal assistance."
However, the Senate deal has not been agreed to by the House, where the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has objected to the administration's plans for some of the money it has sought.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Wednesday that House leaders hope to act before the end of the month, when Congress will leave town for a one-week Fourth of July recess. The House has been working on its own version of the bill, which could end up getting merged with the Senate version.
"We don't want to leave here without humanitarian resources to handle what is a humanitarian crisis at the border," Hoyer told reporters. "There is no doubt that that exists, and we want to move on it as quickly as possible and we'd like to move on in a bipartisan way."
Meanwhile, the Trump administration offered a one-year budget freeze and said Democratic spending demands remained too high as talks with congressional leaders aimed at averting deep cuts in defense and domestic programs this fall seemed no closer to resolution.
Emerging from a session in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office that lasted over an hour, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that without an agreement, the White House was prepared to live with a one-year extension of this year's budget. That would prevent $125 billion in automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs that would otherwise be triggered by law, which both parties want to avoid.
Mnuchin said the administration would also agree to extend the federal debt limit for a year. The government is projected to deplete its legal ability to borrow money after the summer, which would prompt an unprecedented failure by the government to repay its debt that could rattle the world's economy.
"The president has every intention of keeping the government open and keeping the soundness of the full faith and credit of the government," Mnuchin told reporters. He said both sides agreed not to hold the debt limit "hostage to spending."
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., bristled at White House involvement in the negotiations.
"If the House and Senate could work their will without interference from the President, we could come to a good agreement much more quickly," the two Democrats said.
Democrats have been pushing for increased spending for domestic programs, not a freeze, as a trade-off for the Pentagon increases that Trump and congressional Republicans are demanding.
Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim and Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post and by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/20/2019