--- title: Boehner: House GOP Finalizing $659 Million Border Bill description: House Speaker John Boehner announced Tuesday that House Republicans are finalizing a bill to address a surge of migrant children. canonical: https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-29T16:30:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:01.136Z article:section: Politics og:title: Boehner: House GOP Finalizing $659 Million Border Bill og:description: House Speaker John Boehner announced Tuesday that House Republicans are finalizing a bill to address a surge of migrant children. og:url: https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd6579f012820320/69869d9b810bbb2d56c92cb9/452608648.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: John Boehner Holds Media Briefing At The Capitol og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Boehner: House GOP Finalizing $659 Million Border Bill twitter:description: House Speaker John Boehner announced Tuesday that House Republicans are finalizing a bill to address a surge of migrant children. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd6579f012820320/69869d9b810bbb2d56c92cb9/452608648.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Boehner: House GOP Introduces $659 Million Border Bill > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e1c9e62-8ebd-4f48-9088-794b90336c23&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Monday to Saturday (3x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Philip Elliott, Senior Correspondent | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership The policy influence ecosystem. A policy-focused audience spanning government, public affairs, advocacy, law, research, political media, and the institutions that make, interpret and respond to public policy. ### TIME D.C. Brief: key statements * D.C. Brief is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * D.C. Brief is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e1c9e62-8ebd-4f48-9088-794b90336c23&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/subscribe?i=8e1c9e62-8ebd-4f48-9088-794b90336c23&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is TIME's politics newsletter? D.C. Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Immigration Crisis [Watch (HLS stream): The Immigration Crisis](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ba7H8axK.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2014-07-26. White House and Congress struggle to address border crisis_ by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jul 29, 2014 4:30 PM UTC  U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) answers questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol July 24, 2014 in Washington, D.C. U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) answers questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol July 24, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee—;Getty Images by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jul 29, 2014 4:30 PM UTC **Updated at 3:48 p.m.** House Republicans introduced a $659 million bill to address the surge of migrant children coming over the southern U.S. border Tuesday, well short of the $2.7 billion proposal the Senate plans on voting on later this week. In another sign that there’s little chance of finding a compromise before the workweek’s end and subsequent five-week recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested that if the House passed its bill, as House Speaker John Boehner expects, the chambers could discuss a conference meeting on the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill passed last year. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the number-two Democrat in the chamber, flat-out opposed the House bill. “Certainly it won’t have enough money to get the job done, but a lot depends on the substantive language,” said Durbin, who added that he would not support a House provision that would change the due process of migrant children from noncontiguous countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where many of the unaccompanied minors hail. The House bill attempts to relieve backlogged immigration courts by allowing those Central American children to be treated as if they were Mexicans, who are screened more quickly by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid oppose changing that provision, arguing it would grant the unaccompanied minors fewer legal protections and that there are other ways of speeding up immigration cases. The Obama Administration supports the policy change. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers broke down the House bill into three pots of funding: border control, temporary housing and foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The majority of the money, $405 million, is set aside to boost the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another $197 million would be allocated for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is charged with taking care of the migrant children until their family members or guardians can be found while the minors’ immigration cases are handled. There’s also $22 million in funding to hire judges and speed up judicial proceedings, $35 million to send the National Guard to the border and $40 million to support uniting the families in the aforementioned Central American countries. The bill would cover the costs through the end of September. The bill would be offset, Rogers announced, primarily through a $405 million cut from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Other cuts to the State, Defense and Justice departments will bring the bill to be fully offset. Some House Republicans told TIME that the bill is a patch but not a solution. “We’re probably going to have to deal with this again,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). “It’s obvious we’re trying to get this thing through.” “If that’s what they’re doing, \[it’s\] probably all they can get passed right now,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) of the Republican leadership’s plan to fund the bill for two months. When asked if Congress should do more, he said, “I think we have to.” The Obama Administration predicts that as many as 90,000 unaccompanied minors could be apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border before the end of September. ## Transcript Even with thousand of migrant children's still in limbo after floating to the US from central America. The white house and congress are hardly borderly on a solution. This is a problem of the president's own making. House speaker John Bonher said, democrats wont get $ 3. 7 billion in emergency funding for the border crisis unless republicans can tweak a loop hole in the law that offers young unaccompanied minors and entailment have special legal status. We've got a president that's AWOL and the president outta get engaged in this if he actually wants something to happen. A new CNN ORC poll finds the public clambering for change. With 74 percent saying it's extremely or very important for the US to deal with illegal immigration. A ten point jump over last year. We must pass the President's request, a, a supplemental bill, Central American leaders are in Washington asking for help. An untold number of their children are being abused on their long journey North, as the President of Honduras told CNN's Christiane Amanpour [ FOREIGN ] Young girls, 13- year old, the coyotes are human smugglers, give them birth control pills, because most of them are going to sexually abused. Texas government Rick Perry is calling for the national guard to be deployed on the border. I will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault, and little children from Central America are detained in squalor. We are too good a country for that to occur. The Whitehouse first dubbed Perry's request symbolic, noting apprehensions of unaccompanied minors are down by half since last month. It seems to me that a much more powerful symbol would be the bipartisan passage of legislation that would actually make a historic investment in border security and send a additional 20, 000 personnel to the border. Now it turns out the Obama Administration has its own team on the ground on the border assessing whether a national guard deployment might be a good idea after all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/"},"headline":"Boehner: House GOP Introduces $659 Million Border Bill","datePublished":"2014-07-29T16:30:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:01.136Z","description":"The bill is well short of the $3.7 President Obama requested","url":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/","keywords":["Congress","John Boehner","border crisis"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd6579f012820320/69869d9b810bbb2d56c92cb9/452608648.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd6579f012820320/69869d9b810bbb2d56c92cb9/452608648.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Boehner Holds Media Briefing At The Capitol","caption":"John Boehner Holds Media Briefing At The Capitol","creditText":"Win McNamee—;Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/","name":"Boehner: House GOP Introduces $659 Million Border Bill"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Immigration Crisis","description":"White House and Congress struggle to address border crisis","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ba7H8axK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-26T15:04:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ba7H8axK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/","duration":"PT2M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3051703/house-border-bill/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```