House and Senate Pass Border Security Emergency Spending Bill

The House was the first to take up the emergency border security spending bill (H.R. 3401) this week. They passed it on Tuesday evening by a vote of 230-195. Four Democrats (Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib) voted against the measure and three Republicans (Fitzpatrick, Hurd, and Smith-NJ) voted for it. A manager’s amendment helped get it across the finish line. The amendment limited to 90 days the amount of time unaccompanied migrant children can spend in unlicensed facilities and required new standards and protocols that Customs and Border Protection officials would have to meet to ensure the health and safety of those in its custody. The White House issued a veto threat on the House-passed bill.

The Senate then took up the House-passed bill. They first voted on the House bill and it failed by a vote of 37-55. Three Democrats voted agains the House-passed bill: Manchin-WV, Markey-MA, and Merkley-OR. The Senate then amended the House bill with its own bill (S. 1900) and passed it by a vote of 84-8. The eight Senators voting against the measure were Hirono (D-HI), Lee (R-UT), Markey (D-MA), Menendez (D-NJ), Merkley (D-OR), Paul (R-KY), Wyden (D-OR), and Van Hollen (D-MD).

The $4.59B bill then returned to the House. Democrats wanted to amend the Senate-passed bill to include more protections for unaccompanied children, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Senate would table it. The House finally agreed to accept the Senate-passed version and passed it by a vote of 305-102 (95 Democrats and seven Republicans voted against it). The White House has said that the President will sign the bill.

	White House Request	Senate Bill	House Bill
Homeland Security
CBP Processing Centers	$273M	$793M	$787.5M
Migrant Medical Care & Consumables	$10M(consumables)	$112M	$92M (consumables)$20M (medical)
Physical Security	$0M	$0M	$8M
Migrant Transportation	$107.681M	$35M	$35M
Internal TDY/Overtime	$80.336M	$110M	$90.6M
Volunteer Surge Force Reqs	$59.434M	$0M	$5.1M
Countering Human Smuggling and Trafficking	$15M	$0M	$0M
Detainee Medical Care	$0M	$45M	$45M
Integrated Multi-Agency Processing Center Pilot Program	$0M	$0M	$200M
Alternatives to Detention	$0M	$20M	$20M
ICE Detention Beds	$260.2M	$0M	$0M
ICE Family Detention Beds	$81.724M	$0M	$0M
ICE Transportation	$33.719M	$48M	$35.9M (UACs)$12M (Migrants)
BPA Pay and Retention Initiatives	$107M	$70M	$0M
ICE Personnel	$61M	$0M	$0M
HSI Counter-Human Trafficking Operations	$0M	$21M	$0M
Background Investigations	$0M	$5M	$10.2M
IT System Upgrades and Enhancements	$10M	$50M	$50M
FEMA State/Local/Non-Profit Reimbursements for Homeless Migrants	$0M	$30M	$60M
Health and Human Services
Unaccompanied Children Beds	$2.9B	$2.88B	$2.9B
Department of Defense
Operation Guardian Support	$377M	$145M	$0M
Department of Justice
New Immigration Judge Teams/LOP	$0M	$65M	$15M
U.S. Marshals Federal Prisoner Detention	$155M	$155M	$155M