With the clock ticking on the president’s supplemental funding request, Senate negotiators are trying to make a deal to restrict asylum access in exchange for Ukraine aid — and no Latinos are at the negotiating table. Plus, your newsletter author will be at the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament in Las Vegas next week, which features neither my basement-dwelling Washington Wizards or Miriam Adelson’s newly acquired Dallas Mavericks. If you’d like to meet up while I’m in Vegas, drop me a line!
Cortez Masto weighs in on potential border-for-Ukraine deal
With the war in Israel nearing the two-month mark and the war in Ukraine approaching two years, Senate leaders are working out a deal to send aid to both countries as part of a national security supplemental funding request from the Biden administration — but it’s hung up on an all too familiar political graveyard: the border.
While her fellow Latino Democrats have come out against restricting asylum without getting in return a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented (amid other Senate Democrats suggesting an openness to asylum changes) Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is waiting for a proposal to drop before taking a stance.
Nevada’s congressional Democrats are backing the administration’s request, which includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel, $14 billion for border security at the U.S.-Mexico border, $7.4 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9.15 billion for humanitarian aid in affected regions, including Gaza.
Packaging the various aid funds together is meant to make support for Ukraine — increasingly unpopular among House Republicans — contingent on moving aid for Israel, which is much more popular among the GOP.
Senate Republicans, particularly Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are much more supportive of sending aid to Ukraine. But they’ve insisted that any supplemental funding deal must also include immigration provisions beyond the additional border funding — a tall task given that Kyiv is running out of money and the last major congressional immigration reform deal was achieved in 1986.
A potential compromise is being negotiated by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK) and Tom Cotton (R-AR).
Notably, none of the Senate’s Hispanic members are part of the group. The four Latino Senate Democrats are typically part of immigration talks and led by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who has been sidelined by the caucus after a federal indictment.
The talks have centered on restricting the “credible fear” standard for migrants applying for asylum status, limiting the president’s parole powers (which allow migrants from certain countries to stay in the U.S. during asylum cases) and designating more “safe third countries” where migrants are supposed to seek asylum first if they pass through on the way to the U.S.
A deal has not been reached, and negotiators say they are stuck. Eleven Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), say changes to the asylum system must be paired with a path to legalization for long-term undocumented immigrants, echoing immigrant groups’ established stance that Democrats should only give concessions on immigration issues if they get a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented in exchange. Advocates are concerned that if asylee rights are traded for Ukraine aid, Democrats will limit their ability to find a future deal on immigration.
Padilla’s letter included the signatures of Menendez and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), making Cortez Masto the only Hispanic Democrat not to join.
In an interview, she said she’s willing to look at a final deal if it emerges, but until then, wouldn’t weigh in on potential provisions. But she said she was impressed by the original border request made by the Biden administration — which includes funding for additional border patrol agents, fentanyl detection technology and more asylum officers and immigration judges.
“The border supplement that Biden put out, I think, is a really good piece..that addresses some of the issues that I hear from my Republican colleagues when it comes to migration,” she said. “I think that’s a great start.
“I am not giving up on Dreamers and their families,” she added, referring to young immigrants who would have been granted legal status under never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act. “And I think that is something that we have to continue to fight for as well.”
If a deal cannot be reached, congressional appetite for Israel aid could outweigh Democrats’ patience in bundling the issues. Members are divided over whether or not to place conditions on aid — House Republicans passed a bill, largely rejected by Democrats, that conditioned aid to Israel on cutting Internal Revenue Service funding. And progressive Democrats have advocated for conditioning aid on Israel’s commitment to following international law in the wake of devastating bombing in Gaza.
Both Cortez Masto and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) have said aid to Israel should be unconditional.
Around the Capitol
🎰What happens in Vegas stays in the ethics report — Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was expelled from the House of Representatives Friday, only the sixth member in the body’s history to get the boot. All four of Nevada’s House members voted for his expulsion. Among his many transgressions discovered in the ethics report? Using campaign funds to take a honeymoon to Las Vegas in December 2021.
Santos came back to Vegas in November 2022 to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition; he later admitted he lied about being Jewish. With his time in Congress ended, perhaps he’ll make his third straight trip to Sin City? (He would, of course, have to let the feds know.)
🏃Lee on the (literal) trail — Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) wants to improve trails — and not the campaign kind.
Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee — which Lee sits on — came together to introduce a bipartisan outdoor recreation package. The EXPLORE Act, which Lee co-sponsored, includes two of her outdoor recreation-focused bills:
- The BOLT Act, introduced with Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and John Curtis (R-UT), would identify new long-distance biking trails on public lands and improve mapping of existing trails for bikers.
- The PARC Act, another collaborative effort with Neguse and Curtis, would create new guidance for rock climbing in wilderness areas.
For Lee, an outdoors person herself, the package represents an opportunity to actually pass legislation, a rarity when in the minority. With the buy-in of committee leadership, the bill has already received a hearing and has a decent chance of a floor vote.
✈️It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s….a lot of money — Nevada will receive nearly $61 million in new airport funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, through a grant program partially written by Rosen and that can be used for improvements for terminals, runways and taxiways, airport-transit connections, roads and safety and sustainability projects.
The bulk of the money ($46 million) will go to Harry Reid International Airport. Reno-Tahoe International Airport will receive $6.9 million, Boulder City Municipal Airport gets $1.9 million and Elko Regional Airport landed over $1 million.
🧑🌾The Nevada angle — For a few days before Santos’ expulsion, the House was at its full capacity of 435 members. The newest member is Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT), who won a special election earlier this month to take over a retiring member’s seat. Maloy, as Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) was quick to note, is a native of Lincoln County, having been raised in Hiko and graduated from Pahranagat Valley High School in Alamo.
Notable and Quotable:
“Given the effort by some individuals and organizations around the world to distort and deny what happened that day, it was important that, as policymakers, we bear witness to the full extent of the atrocities committed by Hamas.”
— Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), on hosting a screening of footage of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack for fellow senators
Legislative Tracker
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO
Legislation co-sponsored:
S.3356 — A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to modify the role and duties of United States Postal Service police officers, and for other purposes.
S.3379 — A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to issue guidance and recommendations for institutions of higher education on removing criminal and juvenile justice questions from their application for admissions process.
JACKY ROSEN
Legislation sponsored:
S.Res.478 — A resolution designating November 2023 as “National Hospice and Palliative Care Month”.
DINA TITUS
Legislation sponsored:
H.R.6539 — To promote United States-Mongolia trade by authorizing duty-free treatment for certain imports from Mongolia, and for other purposes.
Legislation co-sponsored:
H.R.6498 — To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a minimum tax on certain wealthy taxpayers that takes into account unrealized gains.
SUSIE LEE
Legislation co-sponsored:
H.R.6492 — EXPLORE Act
