Senate says no to 6,000 border troops - Washington Times

Senate says no to 6,000 border troops - Washington Times

Senate Democrats managed Thursday to block deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, but the proposal still garnered a majority of senators, showing widespread support for a border-security-first strategy and underscoring why President Obama is having difficulty trying to win an immigration-legalization bill.

The vote flustered Democrats, who seemed uncertain how to handle the proposal and were reluctant to defy Mr. Obama, who just this week proposed that a much smaller 1,200-troop force be deployed.

In the end, 12 Democrats joined 39 Republicans in voting for the deployment - though that still fell nine votes shy of the 60-vote supermajority needed for passage.

The border-security debate was the key fight as the Senate debated the $59 billion emergency war-spending bill to fund Mr. Obama's Afghanistan troop surge.

Late Thursday, the spending bill passed 67-28, sending it on to be reconciled with a House version.

But that was not before senators defeated a Democratic effort to force Mr. Obama to produce a timetable for withdrawal and Republican efforts to force cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for the added spending.