Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Monday for a vote on a proposal to repeal President Donald Trump’s executive orders barring travel from several majority Muslim countries and banning Syrian refugees from entering the US indefinitely.
“This evening I will ask for a vote on the floor of the Senate to repeal this,” Schumer told NBC’s Today show.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, has two bills that she is preparing: one that would immediately rescind the order. The second limits executive authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act, per the Judiciary Committee.
Schumer is expected to focus on a vote on the repeal measure for now. The timing for the other bill is unclear.
A senior Democratic leadership aide told CNN that they do not think that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow a vote on Feinstein’s proposal — but that Democrats, emboldened by the criticism from some Senate Republicans on the travel ban, will push forward on this Monday.
“We have eleven Republicans out and critical of it. This is more than making a political point. It is just gross and we would like to figure out a way to undue this,” the Democratic aide said.
“There are many Republicans who are clearly not comfortable of it. This would be a way for them to stand up and do something.”
A GOP leadership aide who declined to comment on the specifics of what Schumer might offer — because they haven’t seen the language yet — made clear it would be very difficult to get unanimous consent to act immediately on a bill no one has seen and many will probably disagree with.
Schumer is expected to bring the proposal to the floor between 3 p.m. (when the Senate comes back into session) and 5 p.m. this afternoon, before a scheduled cloture vote on Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of state Rex Tillerson.
McConnell’s office is not officially signaling their move yet, responding to CNN’s inquiries that they have not yet seen Feinstein’s bills.
