Schumer: reconciliation of state spending bill continues

After agreeing to amendments on the immigration issue, the Senate is ready to move forward with a $1.66 trillion government spending bill.

This was announced Thursday by Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Recall that work on the bill, which includes $44.9 billion in aid to Ukraine and prohibits the use of the Chinese app TikTok on federal government devices, stalled after Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced an amendment extending Title 42, which seeks to restrict immigration in connection with COVID-19.

The move prompted Democrats to introduce a counter amendment that would increase funding for various law enforcement agencies working at the border.

“Now we have an agreement,” Schumer said. – We’ll vote on all the amendments individually first, and then we’ll vote to pass the whole omnibus bill. It took a long time, but it’s worth it.”

If the Senate passes the bill, it will go to the House and then to President Joe Biden to sign into law.

Lee’s amendment would require the U.S. to keep the policy known as “Section 42,” enacted under former President Donald Trump at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented hundreds of thousands of immigrants from seeking asylum.
Those restrictions were set to expire earlier this week, but the Supreme Court delayed ending “Section 42” while considering lawsuits filed by Republican-led states.

“The omnibus bill contains nothing for border security and, in fact, contains language that undermines border security,” Lee wrote on Twitter, referring to the state spending bill. – “Without a vote for or against Section 42, every Republican in the Senate should vote against (the bill).”