Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) leaves the Capitol following a procedural vote regarding a nomination on Tuesday, September 5, 2023. The Senate returns to work after a five-week recess.
Published December 19, 2023
Senate Republicans say there’s no chance of a deal before Christmas on funding the war in Ukraine and enacting new border security reforms.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had tentatively scheduled a vote on the package this week, but Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the lead Republican negotiator, told reporters Monday that he doesn’t expect White House and Senate negotiators to reach an agreement in the next few days given the unresolved issues still on the table.
“We’re clearly not going to have text complete this week to be able to have a vote to be able to pull this stuff together. We’ll keep working until we get it done,” he said. “We’re all going to be back in January on this, but it’s going to take a while to be able to finish up all the text.”
Lankford said he doesn’t expect the bipartisan negotiating group to release a framework this week, either.
“I don’t anticipate a document coming out and saying to everybody, ‘OK, here’s what it is.’ This is going to be a moving target,” he added.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) confirmed Monday that there won’t be a deal this week.
“We’ll work through the [Christmas] break and hopefully have something ready to vote on” in January, he said. “Obviously, we’re not getting this done this week, for sure.”
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Senate Foreign Relations chairman says Ukraine aid more important than border security
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. (Video screenshot)
Published December 19, 2023
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin said on Thursday that sending aid to Ukraine is more important than border security.
Since the Ukraine-Russia war began in 2022, the United States has provided over $75 billion in aid to the country. Republicans have opposed Senate Democrats’ proposed $61 billion aid package to Israel unless it is accompanied by border security reforms amid a surge in illegal immigration at the United States’ southern border with Mexico.
“Ukraine,” said Cardin, in response to the DCNF’s question about which priority was more important. Republicans in Congress have accused Democrats of being insufficiently concerned with border security, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that Republicans’ “first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is … our own national security first.”
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SOURCE: www.wnd.com
RELATED: Ukraine: Security Does Not Stop at the American Border
A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a destroyed Russian BTR-82A armored personnel carrier outside the village of Robotyne near a front line in Zaporizhzhia Region, Ukraine, November 4, 2023. (Stringer/Reuters)
Published December 13, 2023
There is every reason to be concerned about the dangerous fiasco at the southern border and, for that matter, signs of growing illegal immigration from the north too. The administration’s failures in this area are, as it knows perfectly well, an area of political vulnerability, and, as we enter an election year, that ought to offer leverage to those who rightly want to see tougher immigration enforcement.
But legitimate worries about the security of this country’s actual border are not a reason to wish away worries about threats to American security from further abroad, including from Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
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SOURCE: www.nationalreview.com
