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Frank Rivera and Jon
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Senate Democrats Defeat McCain and Kyl
Republican Push to Send 6,000 more Troops to Border
WASHINGTON
(By
Paul Kane,
Washington Post) May 28, 2010
―
Senate Democrats defeated a string
of Republican amendments Thursday
designed to tighten security on the
Mexican border, setting up final
passage of a nearly $60 billion
spending bill that will fund
President Obama's troop surge into
Afghanistan.
With 69 votes of support, the Senate
cut off debate on the overall
legislation. More than half the
money in the bill will fund the
infusion of 30,000 troops into
Afghanistan, and $5 billion will go
toward a disaster relief fund. A
final vote on the legislation could
come Thursday evening.
Most lawmakers support the war
funds. The most heated political
issue in the debate has been Mexican
border security after GOP complaints
about mounting violence related to
the smuggling of illegal immigrants,
drugs and weapons. Democrats, who
favor a new security proposal from
Obama, turned back each Republican
amendment, including an effort by
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to put
6,000 more security troops on the
border.
The McCain measure, which needed 60
votes for approval, fell short on a
51 to 46 vote. He attracted the
support of 12 Democrats, including
several up for re-election in
November: Sens. Michael Bennet
(Colo.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and
Blanche Lincoln (Ark.).
Obama's former presidential rival
said that his state -- which enacted
the nation's toughest law against
illegal immigrants and set off a
renewed national debate on the issue
-- would require 3,000 of the
security forces.
Sensing the shifting political
ground, Obama proposed a plan
Tuesday that would increase funding
by $500 million and temporarily send
1,200 members of the National Guard
to the border to help shore up the
Border Patrol. Republicans rejected
Obama's effort as insufficient to
deal with something they say is a
national crisis.
"While it's important to have
additional resources there, even on
a temporary basis, even on a limited
basis, there's a whole lot more that
we need to do. We need permanent
solutions, not temporary solutions,"
Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), a member of
GOP leadership and co-sponsor of
McCain's amendment, told reporters
Wednesday.
Most Democrats rejected the GOP
offer of 6,000 more troops as
unnecessary given the latest Obama
proposal. "It's sort of throwing an
enormous amount of money at the
problem that is not as carefully
thought out, not as targeted and as
effective, quite frankly, as
President Obama's plan," Sen.
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said
moments before the vote.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the
chamber's lone Latino senator,
criticized the McCain plan as
"militarizing the border" and the
"definition of insanity" because it
continued the previous efforts at
building up a troop presence when a
more compehensive solution is needed
for immigration problems.
Democrats then also withstood a pair
of other GOP border-security
amendments, including Cornyn's
effort to quadruple Obama's new
border proposal with $2 billion in
funding. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
proposed increased funding for a
Justice Department program dealing
with illegal immigration.
The Kyl and Cornyn amendments each
received 54 votes, including 13
Democrats for each. The vulnerable
Democrats voted with Republicans on
those amendments as well, a
potential sign of how some lawmakers
up for reelection this fall feel a
need to push for enhanced border
security as a precondition to
broader immigration reform.
"If they are strong on the border,
it allows them to do a comprehensive
bill," said Menendez, chairman of
the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee.
Feelings toward Obama remained
publicly raw after his Tuesday visit
to the Senate Republican Conference,
a 75-minute, closed-door huddle that
provoked agitated Republicans to
complain to reporters afterward
about the president's efforts at
bipartisanship. In particular,
McCain made note Wednesday during a
speech on the Senate floor, that
Obama's aides announced his new
border plan 30 minutes after he left
the GOP meeting and yet did not tell
the senators what he was about to
do.
"You've got to laugh, in the spirit
of bipartisanship," McCain said. .
