Republican Sen. James Lankford, who spent months negotiating the border provisions the GOP demanded, said he may vote against his own bill this week.
Senate Republicans on Monday signaled their plan to filibuster bipartisan legislation that paired tougher border policy with more U.S. aid to Ukraine, a stunning reversal less than 24 hours after the legislation had been unveiled.
With ex-president Donald Trump urging them to kill it, and many on the right up in arms about the proposal, top Senate Republicans emerged from a heated closed-door meeting and said they needed more time to review the agreement, suggesting that a scheduled Wednesday vote to advance the bill is all but doomed to fail.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t put the bill on the floor, the Republican Speaker has to do that. And he won’t because the bill will pass once a vote is allowed.
I find it amazing how many times Republican Leadership squashes a bill (or a Supreme Court nomination, for that matter) specifically because it has enough support to pass. So they can’t hold a vote at all, and have to bury it. Seems like the opposite of what they should be doing as legislators.
Usually they deny the floor to a bill they don’t have the votes for. You just don’t hear about them. Weirdly, this one is opposite.
This article is about the Senate, where Dems lead proceedings. Mitch McConnell also supports this bill.
There may be a filibuster if it doesn’t have 10 or so Republicans supporting it, but those votes are probably there. The Senate GOP is generally pro-Ukraine and a fair bit less overrun by moronic populism than the House GOP, which is a certifiable clown show at this point.
Yeah,
I forgot about that whole McConnell thing. Shit.
The Senate Republicans aren’t ready to vote on Wednesday, so they rattle around a filibuster. They’ll end up voting no on the procedural vote. Schumer will take it to the floor and they’ll get their 60. It’s the House that’s the problem.