With not Enough Votes, Border Bill Set Aside by House Republicans

image31-07-2014 12.01.16After failing to bring enough conservative members of the U.S. House on board, GOP leaders abandoned their $659 million border bill vote on Thursday.

With Democrats opposing the bill and a large number of Republicans opposed to sending more fuinds to the White House for the bill, the vote was tabled, House Republicans will meet at 3pm this afternoon to discuss their remaining options.

Republicans say that another vote may be possible later today but so far it looks like the last vote before recess will be the 2 pm vote on the Highway Trust Fund before going on a five-week recess. The lack of vote on the border issue will make it hard for Republican House members as they go to their home states to meet with their constituents.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz worked behind the scenes to stir up opposition to the House bill and apparently succeeded in causing enough disarray to curb the vote. GOP leaders are incensed at what they call a Cruz “hi-jacking.”

Cruz had a bill in the Senate that would have blocked President Obama’s future legalization programs, but that bill failed in the Senate and so Cruz shifted focus on the House instead. A bill inspired by the Cruz bill in the Senate was attached begrudgingly by Boehner. That bill would halt any Deferred action by the president through the Childhood Arrivals Program that would have given legal status to an approximately 500,000 immigrant children if they remain in school or join the military.

Regardless, if the bill had been passed in the House, it would not have gotten anywhere in the Senate. 

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