Washington, June 27 (TIWN) The Republican-controlled US Senate has passed a bill authorizing an additional $4.5 billion for operations on the US-Mexico border, but the measure differs on key points with the funding bill approved earlier by the House of Representatives.

 The 84-8 vote came less than 24 hours after the House of Representative passed a measure that was similar, but had more restrictions on how the Trump administration could use the money. That House bill was rejected in the Senate.   Wide bipartisan support in the Senate for the emergency funds requested by the Trump administration gives the president the upper hand in negotiations with House Democrats who will now face pressure to act quickly. 

The Senate action puts House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a political bind between demands from progressives in her caucus to rein-in President Donald Trump's family-separation practices at the US border with Mexico, which Pelosi has harshly criticised, and an urgent need to provide US agencies with more funding to handle the recent surge in migrants.  "The topline numbers of the House bill may be similar but the policy implications are vast. Time is of the essence here," Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, said in remarks to the Senate on Wednesday.