COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Senate and House Bills To Spend $4.5-4.6B On Southern Border; Senate Routes $145M Thru Military, House Adds $615M To Aid C. American Nations

Update, 7/2 at 12:45: Without fanfare or noting it on the White House website, President Donald Trump signed the $4.6B aid package yesterday. It became law today.

Here are both the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of a $4.6B spending package for the crisis on the southern border. The House approved it yesterday on a party-line vote.

However, that would now appear to be dead on arrival, as the Senate voted today in an overwhelmingly bi-partisan fashion to substitute the Senate's package for a vote. The Senate passed their version, and that will head back over to the House. Arizona's Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally both voted "aye". (Last night, Arizona's four Republican Representatives voted "nay" on the House version.)

Arizona's Politics has compared the money parts of the two versions, and can point out some of the key similarities and differences. (We have not (yet) compared the "guard rails" that were reportedly placed on the spending by the House bill.)

1) DIFFERENCE: The House version would make $615M in assistance available to the three Central American nations responsible for most of the asylum seekers (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) and to other nations in the area. The Senate version does not mention this.
2) DIFFERENCE: The Senate version routes $145M of the funds through the Army, Army National Guard, Air Force and Marines. The amounts are listed as "Operations and Maintenance." It is not clear whether this is done as a result of earlier budget transfers from the Administration's earlier emergency declaration. The House version does not reference the military.
3) SIMILARITY: Both provide $155M to the U.S. Marshalls for prisoners in custody. Both provide monies for the "Legal Orientation Program". (House=$15M, Senate=$10M).
4) DIFFERENCE: The Senate adds $55M for immigration judges, facilities and supplies.
5) SIMILARITY: The House allocated $1.2B to Customs and Border Protection; the Senate $1.0B. The Senate budgets $112M for "consumables and medical care" for the minors (House = $92M). The Senate's has $708M for migrant care and processing facilities and $35M for transportation.
6) SIMILARITY: Both have $85M for CBP facilities.
7) DIFFERENCE: The House provides twice as much to FEMA ($60M vs $30M), while the Senate bill gives nearly twice as much to ICE ($209M vs $128M).
8) SIMILARITY: Both propose spending $2.9B through the Department of Health and Human Services for "Refugee and Entrant Assistance".

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