The senators who spent four months negotiating a bipartisan compromise on border policy and security aid probably didn’t see the political freight train coming. Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who took the lead in the talks on behalf of his party, predicted last month that the bill could garner up to 70 votes in the chamber, but within hours of unveiling the legislation, it was obvious that far-right opposition was simply too great.
On Monday, the day after the text of the bill reached the public, GOP officials lined up to condemn the package in no uncertain terms. By most measures, the odds that the legislation would fail were roughly 99%.
A day later, they reached 100%. NBC News reported:
Republican senators made it clear Tuesday that they will kill the border security bill their party negotiated with Democrats, a stunning turnaround less than 48 hours after it was released by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and blessed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, R-Ky. — overruled by his Senate GOP members, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and former President Donald Trump — conceded it has no path to passage.
Around the same time, Sen. Chris Murphy, who took the Democratic lead in negotiating the compromise, was asked if there was still any hope for the bill. “No,” the Connecticut senator replied.
To be sure, there will probably still be a procedural vote on the legislation, which would require 60 votes to advance. Literally no one involved in the process believes it will get anywhere close to that total. On the contrary, it will struggle to get close to 50 votes.
We’ll learn soon after what policymakers intend to do next, but as the dust settles on this dramatic failure, the problem is not just that Republicans have killed a bipartisan compromise they said they wanted. Making matters worse is the fact that Republicans have killed a bipartisan compromise they said they wanted again.
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