Schumer tees up round two for bipartisan border bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is teeing up a second attempt at passing the bipartisan border bill — after Republicans blocked it earlier this year — a move that comes as the situation at the southern border remains top of mind for voters ahead of the November elections.

Schumer announced Sunday that the Senate will take up the bipartisan border deal as a stand-alone measure this week. The vote is all but certain to fail amid opposition on both sides of the aisle, but it will allow Democratic leaders to flip the messaging switch on Republicans as the border dominates chatter on the campaign trail.

It will also give vulnerable Democrats an opportunity to go on the record in support of cracking down on the situation at the southern border.

“We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border,” Schumer wrote in a letter to colleagues.

In the House, the Committee on Education and the Workforce is set to hold a hearing about antisemitism on college campuses, the latest move on Capitol Hill to respond to the pro-Palestinian protests that rocked university grounds in recent weeks. Leaders from Northwestern University; University of California, Los Angeles; and Rutgers University are set to testify.

The House is also scheduled to take up legislation that would prevent noncitizens from voting in local elections in Washington, D.C.

Senate to try again on bipartisan border bill

Schumer’s second attempt at passing the bipartisan border deal comes more than three months after a majority of the Republican conference voted against advancing the legislation in a stunning fashion, an outcome that followed painstaking negotiations and a public pressure campaign by former President Trump to have GOP lawmakers oppose the measure. 

The take-two effort — which Schumer teased earlier this month but formally announced Sunday — comes as the border continues to dominate polls surveying voter concerns ahead of November. The issue also remains a key vulnerability for Biden as he seeks reelection.

The proposal, however, is unlikely to see success this time around, despite the continued attention on the border, after Republicans — including Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), the GOP negotiator — cast doubt on Schumer’s intentions as he floated the idea of reviving the bipartisan deal.

“No one’s talked to me about trying to be able to solve this because this is not a serious work to be able to resolve it,” Lankford told Newsmax last week when asked about Schumer holding a vote on the deal he negotiated.

“What we were trying to do in the past, several months ago, was do a serious, bipartisan sit-down conversation, saying where do we have common ground, what can we get fixed. Biden’s not gonna do his job, what can we actually get done to be able to solve the problem,” he continued. “No one’s sitting down to actually do that kind of work at this point.”

Schumer alluded to the bill’s slim odds in the Senate, writing that he expects to lose support on both sides of the aisle. But the Democratic leader, nonetheless, underscored the importance of bipartisan cooperation when dealing with such a politically prickly issue.

“I will be honest: I do not expect all Democrats to support this legislation. Many of our colleagues do not support some of the provisions in this legislation, nor do I expect all Republicans to agree to every provision,” he wrote. “But that is often how bipartisan legislation must be shaped when dealing with an issue as complex and politically charged as our nation’s immigration laws.”

A bipartisan group of senators — Lankford, Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) — launched talks to craft a bipartisan border deal last year, after Republicans said that any aid for Ukraine must be paired with legislation to address the situation at the southern border.

The trio unveiled legislation in February — following months of painstaking negotiations — that would raise standards for asylum screening, end the practice known as “catch and release” and provide a new authority to close the border to most migrants when crossings reach a set threshold, among other provisions.

But after strong encouragement from Trump, most Republicans voted against advancing the legislation, forcing Democratic leaders to abandon the proposal and pass foreign aid independently. Congress finally approved a foreign aid package in April, which Biden signed into law.

House GOP leaders slammed Schumer’s gambit on Monday, announcing that the bipartisan bill “would be dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.

“Leader Schumer is trying to give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which has already failed once in the Senate because it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place,” they wrote.

University leaders to testify at antisemitism hearing

A trio of university leaders are set to testify on Capitol Hill this week about the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, after a wave of pro-Palestinian protests roiled university grounds in recent weeks.

Northwestern President Michael Schill, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway are all scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The hearing, titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos,” is set to take place Thursday at 10:15 a.m. EDT.

“The Committee has a clear message for mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders: Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of your duty to your Jewish students,” Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in a statement when announcing the hearing. “No stone must go unturned while buildings are being defaced, campus greens are being captured, or graduations are being ruined.”

“College is not a park for playacting juveniles or a battleground for radical activists,” she added. “Everyone affiliated with these universities will receive a healthy dose of reality: actions have consequences.”

The hearing comes after pro-Palestinian protests took over college campuses across the country, garnering national attention — especially on Capitol Hill. Nearly 3,000 people were arrested throughout the demonstrations, according to NBC News.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other lawmakers, for example, visited Columbia University — the site of one of the most tense campus protests — last month, and earlier this month, the House approved a bill that seeks to crack down on antisemitism on university grounds.

Thursday will not be the first time college leaders testify on Capitol Hill: In December, the president of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology all appeared before the Education College.

The presidents of Harvard and Pennsylvania resigned after the hearing following sharp criticism for their testimony regarding antisemitism on campus. 

House to vote on banning noncitizens from voting in local D.C. elections

The House this week will vote on a bill to ban noncitizens from voting in local Washington elections, the latest attempt by GOP lawmakers to alter operations in the nation’s capital.

The D.C. Council in 2022 passed the D.C. Noncitizen Voting Act, which expanded the definition of qualified elector for local elections to include eligible non-citizen residents. In March, a federal judge discarded a lawsuit that challenged the non-citizen voting statute.

Republicans have argued that the D.C. law “disenfranchises American citizens and could have a ripple effect across other large U.S. cities.”

“This D.C. law is unjust and against federal law, minimizing the voice of American citizens by diluting their votes with votes from foreign diplomats and illegal immigrants,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) office added in its floor lookout.

House Democratic leadership is whipping against the bill, according to Axios.

Consideration of the legislation comes roughly two weeks after House Republicans approved a bill that calls for adding a citizenship question to the 10-year census. And it follows previous attempts by Republicans in this Congress to overturn various D.C. laws.

One of those examples came last year, when Congress approved legislation to overturn a D.C. crime bill, which President Biden signed into law.

Updated at 11:17 a.m. EDT