WASHINGTON D.C., Dec. 22, 2022 (UPI) — Senate lawmakers failed to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package as negotiations stalled late Wednesday over a GOP amendment to maintain a Trump-era border policy that has barred entry to millions of migrants and asylum seekers amid the pandemic.
The inability to vote on the spending package that will fund the government through fiscal year 2023 pushes the lawmakers closer to Friday’s midnight deadline when federal coffers run dry.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who Wednesday said they could potentially pass the massive bill by the end of the day, voiced optimism from the Senate floor early Thursday that a deal was on the horizon and a government shutdown will be avoided before the Christmas break.
“First, let me thank you, madame president, and the entire staff for being here at two in the morning, but getting this omnibus bill done is an important thing to do. It is my expectation that we will be able to lock in an agreement on the omnibus tomorrow morning,” the New York Democrat said. “We are very close but we’re not there yet.”
The original deadline to pass the bill was extended a week last Thursday amid protracted negotiations that saw a framework unveiled Dec. 13.
The bill snagged Wednesday on an amendment put forth by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that ties funding for Homeland Security to maintaining Title 42, a controversial border policy instituted by the former administration of Donald Trump that expels migrants and asylum at the southern border into Mexico in an effort to stymie the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans have been fighting to keep the rule in place to continue to keep new migrants and asylum seekers out of the country while human rights and immigration advocates say the rule violates the rights of non-U.S. citizens to seek protection under U.S. and international law.
The policy, however, is tied up in litigation.
Advocates sued to have the rule repealed, which a district judge agreed with last month, giving the Biden administration five weeks to lift Title 42, which attracted the appeal from 19 Republican-led states.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court halted Title 42’s Wednesday expiration to allow the appeal to continue.
“We have a difference of opinion on immigration police,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters Wednesday night. “We’re not going to solve that in this budget.”
