Prognosis

Covid Funding Stalled in Senate by Fight Over Border Policy

  • Democrats block Republican demand for vote on migrant policy
  • Lawmakers set to depart on two-week recess without passing aid

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference on the U.S. Capitol.

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg
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The $10 billion in emergency pandemic response money sought by the White House is stalled in the Senate ahead of a two-week recess because of objections by Republicans and a few Democrats to the Biden administration’s impending opening of the U.S.-Mexico border to asylum-seekers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders have rejected a Republican demand to vote on an amendment requiring the Biden administration to continue a Covid-related requirement known as Title 42 to expel adult migrants entering the U.S. via the Mexico border, which the administration intends to lift next month.