Senators returned to the Capitol on Monday to no news of a bipartisan border security deal following a weekend of negotiations.
A bipartisan working group of senators has spent weeks negotiating a border security deal that would be added to a defense spending bill that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Negotiators on both sides have acknowledged that the border measure is critical to passing the legislation through both chambers.
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Negotiators stayed in Washington over the weekend to meet about the deal and will continue talks this week. Around 60 of their nearly 100 Senate colleagues joined them starting Monday when the upper chamber gaveled into session despite it being Christmas recess. Aside from border talks, the primary item on the agenda will be confirming the 11 stalled four-star generals held over from Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) blanket hold on military promotions.
Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have been leading the negotiations, which have centered largely on changes to federal asylum policy and how the Biden administration uses the humanitarian parole authority. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) has also been heavily involved in the talks.
There have also been reports that the White House has offered to establish a new border expulsion law and increase mandatory detention rates as part of the negotiations, though no one from the Senate working group or the Biden administration has confirmed as much publicly.
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Lankford told reporters on Monday that there is “no way” the Senate could vote on the legislation this week, noting that negotiators have “a ways to go” to reach a deal. Neither he nor Murphy provided time frames for when to expect them to reach an agreement.
“Obviously, we need time for members to look at this before they vote. I have not been as focused on whether we’re releasing a framework before we’re releasing text,” Murphy said on Monday. “We have not made a decision on how we would announce the agreement and in what form that would come. But I’m just gonna keep working at it, try to get an agreement, and try to get text as quickly as we can.”
