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House Leaders Consider Clearing Border Security Bill

House Democratic leaders might try to clear a $600 million border security bill when the chamber reconvenes next week, a top House Democrat said Friday.

“That’s something that we will look at,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Assistant to the Speaker.

The Maryland Democrat told reporters during a conference call that there were “ongoing discussions” about adding the border security measure to the chamber’s agenda when the House meets Tuesday to attempt to send a $26 billion state aid package to President Barack Obama.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decided Wednesday to interrupt House Members’ six-week recess for one day to facilitate final action on the state aid bill after Senate Democrats broke a filibuster of the measure with the help of two Maine Republicans — Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

A Democratic leadership aide said Friday that House staffers were reviewing a flurry of Thursday night legislative activity in the Senate to determine whether they wanted to add anything to the agenda, which is slated to include a vote on a privileged Republican resolution restricting legislative activity in any post-election, lame-duck session.

The border security bill, which calls for the deployment of 1,500 new Border Patrol and immigration agents, passed the Senate by unanimous consent Thursday night. Republicans caught Democrats off guard by not objecting to the bill, as they had in the past.

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