“The Senate is passing bipartisan bills and avoiding poison pill riders instead of, my friends, just wasting time on partisan bills with no chance of enactment,” Lowey said.

Lowey and other Democrats also took issue with the bill’s overall funding level. Since overall nondefense discretionary funding is set to increase by $18 billion for fiscal 2019 over the current year under an agreement on budget caps Congress reached earlier this year, Democrats argued that the Labor-HHS-Education measure should get at least $5 billion of that increase. That would be in proportion with the measure’s overall size and share of nondefense funding. Instead, the bill would provide around the same levels of funding as in fiscal 2018.

While the debate was often heated, there were bipartisan areas of agreement. A manager’s amendment to the bill was adopted by voice vote at the outset. It included language that would allow HHS to accept donations of things like medical supplies, clothing and school supplies for the unaccompanied children in HHS’ care. It would also require HHS to provide Congress with regular reports about how many migrant children it has in its care, how long they’ve been in custody, and their reunification status.

The amendment from Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut to require HHS to develop a formal strategy for reunifying the children with their families was adopted by voice vote. An amendment from Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, that would require siblings in HHS’ custody to remain together, was also adopted by voice vote. So was an amendment from Democratic Rep. Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, which would prevent HHS from administering any medications to a child in its custody unless he or she received a physical and mental health evaluation.

But the amendment on the Flores agreement from Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma faced more partisan debate before being adopted, 31-21. The amendment essentially mirrored language in one of the immigration bills that the House rejected in June, which would overturn the legal decision that the Trump administration argues is requiring it to separate families. While the amendment would allow families to stay together, it would also allow them to keep children in detention indefinitely.