Biden to urge Congress to pass bipartisan border security bill that Republicans now oppose

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks Tuesday morning urging Congress to pass a bipartisan package of border security measures and asylum restrictions that Republicans are threatening to block on the Senate floor.

In a schedule update for the president, the White House said Biden would speak around 11:45 a.m. ET to urge “Congress to pass the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act.”

The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote Wednesday that will require 60 votes to advance the measure, which also includes aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. But Republican senators left a closed-door meeting Monday night predicting that thechamber wouldn’t have enough GOP votes to move forward with the bill, even after their chief negotiator signed off on the deal on Sunday.

“I would anticipate Wednesday the cloture vote does not pass,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator in the border talks, told reporters after the meeting. “People are saying, ‘Hey, I need a lot more time to be able to go through this.'”

On Tuesday, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, the third highest-ranking member of his caucus, came out against the deal, saying, “The proposed legislation does not meet most Americans’ standard of securing our border now.”

House Republican leaders said that the legislation is “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber and former President Donald Trump has been urging lawmakers from his party to tank it, saying that it would be a “gift” to Biden and Democrats in an election year.

“I cannot vote for this bill,” Barrasso said. “Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.”

Since the beginning of his administration, Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation to address the nation’s broken immigration system. The deal that Lankford negotiated came after Republicans said they would only agree to pass funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as requested by the administration, if Biden agreed to tougher border security measures.