The Senate fails to pass a border bill, and Sen. Rick Scott announces bid for Senate Leadership.
Senate again fails to pass bipartisan border bill
The Senate once again failed to pass a bipartisan border security agreement championed by President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.
A procedural vote on the bill failed Thursday when 50 lawmakers in both parties voted against the bill; the measure required 60 votes to advance. Several senators on both sides of the aisle who initially supported the bill earlier this year flipped their votes to oppose it this time around.
Negotiated by a bipartisan trio of U.S. Senators and introduced in February as the nation’s southern border experienced a swell of immigrants, GOP lawmakers immediately expressed opposition to the plan that had initially been proposed as part of a $95 billion foreign aid bill.
The bill would provide funding to hire thousands of new border patrol agents, buy the latest in detection equipment, overhaul asylum laws and give the president new authorities to close the border when migrant encounters with border patrol agents begin overwhelming the system for processing them.
The measure, crafted by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; and Sen. Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., was supposed to be included in a $95 billion foreign aid bill that also provided money for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. But the immigration portion was ultimately stripped from the larger bill after Republicans — encouraged by former President Donald Trump, who pushed GOP lawmakers to reject it — objected, and the foreign aid passed both chambers of Congress as a standalone bill last month.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott announces bid for Senate GOP leader
Florida Sen. Rick Scott said Wednesday that he will run for Senate Republican leader when Mitch McConnell steps down from the post, becoming the third Republican in the race.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the current No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn have already announced they are running. McConnell said in February that he would step down from the post after November's election but stay in the Senate.
Scott is a close ally of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and is likely to win votes from some of Trump's closest allies in the Senate. Scott was one of the first GOP lawmakers to attend Trump's hush money trial in New York, accompanying the former president into the courtroom earlier this month and defending him on television afterward.
Announcing his run on Fox News, Scott called himself a "change agent" and said he'd spoken with Trump earlier in the day.
"He said he's excited I'm getting into the race," Scott said.
The Florida senator's close ties to the former president could be an advantage, especially if Trump defeats Joe Biden in the presidential election. But Thune and Cornyn have endorsed Trump as well, after criticizing him in the past over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
Scott also ran for Republican leader in 2022, challenging McConnell at Trump's urging. He won 10 votes out of the 49 in the GOP conference.
"I think there's a better way to run the Senate," Scott said after McConnell announced he would step down from leadership. "So we'll see what happens."
Scott and McConnell have been at odds since Scott led Republicans' Senate campaign arm in the 2022 elections and the two had differing approaches. The party came up short that year, failing to win back the majority after Democrats took control in 2021. Scott was openly critical of McConnell and won over a few of his colleagues who also said it was time for new leadership.
Republican senators haven't chosen a new leader since 2007, when McConnell was elected — before most current GOP senators took office. Campaigning is already taking place in private and in one-on-one meetings, as the contenders work to persuade their GOP colleagues to back them on a secret ballot. The election will take place in a closed-door conference meeting at some point after the November elections.
DeSantis takes on Starbucks over DEI stance
Florida is launching an investigation into a major and popular coffee chain.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the investigation alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis on the Sean Hannity radio show.
The state wants this investigation focused on “antibias training” among other things and says the companies policies are creating an abusive word place.
Florida is brewing an investigation into the world’s largest and top selling coffee chain.
“The matter will be investigated. I’m proud to report and we are referring the matter officially to the Florida Commission on Human Relations for investigation of Starbucks and these practices,” Moody said.
Those practices are the diversity policies at Starbucks. In particular: the company’s goal to make staff at least 40% people of color.
“You shouldn’t discriminate. You should treat people as individuals. Judge them based on the content of their character. Not the color of their skin or their ethnicity or anything like that,” DeSantis said.
Starbucks has yet to comment on the investigation, though Florida Democrats are taking notice.
They call this wasteful.
“She could be going after price gouging landlords or bust up monopolies in our state. There’s so much she could do to benefit the consumer and this isn’t it,” Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani said.
For context: within two years, the Florida government has had two fights with two Fortune 500 companies.
“First Disney. Now Starbucks. What’s next? I think the interference with Disney does make a lot of business entities uncomfortable,” Florida Rep. Rita Harris said.
The Florida Commission on Human Rights will spearhead this investigation. They were created in 1969 and they investigate any supposed civil rights violations.