Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) promised a freestanding funding bill to address the humanitarian crisis at the southern border today in an interview with "Fox and Friends." The bill would appropriate $5 billion to address humanitarian concerns, not security concerns at the border.
After a scathing indictment of House Democrats for their lack of action to resolve the current crisis at the southern border, stating that Democrats have been less helpful than Mexico when it comes to addressing the border crisis, Sen. McConnell added that he would bring up the $5 billion stand-alone bill next week. Sen. McConnell said that the money was supposed to be included in a recent bill to provide emergency funds to areas hit by storms, but Democrats insisted the funds be removed, as reported by Fox News.
Sen. McConnell explained his reasoning behind the bill:
I think it's safe to say the president is getting more cooperation out of Mexico than he is out of congressional Democrats. I'm going to bring [the bill] up freestanding next week and see if [Democrats] really aren't interested in dealing with this mass of humanity that we have to take care of at the border. What's the objection?
Sen. McConnell stressed that the bill would focus on the humanitarian issues, not President Trump's border wall, which Sen. McConnell strongly supports. The Senate Majority Leader added he believes Democrats are "suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome" which is leading to a reflexive opposition to anything proposed by the Trump Administration or its allies in Congress. This leads to the belief that Sen. McConnell intends this bill to be a political tool which backs Congressional Democrats into a corner, forcing them to either approve a Republican bill or publicly ignore the growing crisis at the border for purely political purposes.
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