Senate nixes border, Iron Dome funding
US聽Senate聽legislation giving President Obama聽$2.7 billion to deal with tens of thousands of Central American migrant children amassing at the聽southwestern U.S.聽border was blocked on Thursday by Republican opposition.
By a聽vote聽of 50-44, 10 short of the 60 needed, the bill failed to clear a procedural hurdle. Republicans objected to the cost of the measure and complained that it would not be effective in discouraging rising illegal migration of children from聽El Salvador,听Honduras, and Guatemala.
Earlier on Thursday, the聽House of Representatives聽failed to pass a $659 million funding bill that the聽White House聽had threatened to veto. House Republican leaders are trying to figure out a way to bring a border-security bill back to the chamber for passage. The Monitor's Francine Kiefer reports that many representatives blame Ted Cruz for interfering with the House vote.
The failure of the US聽Senate's border security funding bill also delayed at least until September $225 million in funding for聽Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system.
The聽Senate聽Appropriations Committee聽had included the funds for聽Israel's system in a bill that would have given Obama $2.7 billion to deal with an influx of tens of thousands of undocumented Central American children across the border with聽Mexico.
But the funding bill stalled until at least September when it failed to clear a procedural hurdle by a聽vote聽of 50-44, 10 short of the 60 needed. Republicans objected to the cost of the measure.
