A compromise $10 billion measure buttressing the government’s COVID-19 defenses stalled in the Senate Wednesday and seemed all but certainly sidetracked for weeks, victim of a campaign-season fight over the incendiary issue of immigration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meets with reporters following a Democratic Caucus meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2022.WASHINGTON —
“Why did Republicans say no? Because they wanted to cripple COVID funding legislation with poison pills that they knew would derail this bill,” Schumer said Wednesday. While there would likely be at least the 10 GOP votes needed to push the pandemic bill through the 50-50 Senate, overall Republican support for it is tepid. And the GOP’s effort to refocus the fight to immigration — an issue that polls show hurts Biden — has clearly put Democrats on the defensive.
When the pandemic was full-blown in 2020, Trump began letting authorities immediately expel asylum seekers and other migrants, citing the threat to public health. COVID-19’s intensity has since waned in the U.S., though BA.2, a new omicron variant, is beginning to spread widely here.“They’re in the majority. And the administration says they need this money. And I actually agree with the administration,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who helped negotiate the package.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declined to discuss what she would do if the Senate sent her chamber a pandemic measure that also extended Trump’s immigration strictures.