The Senate deadlocked Wednesday over a bill that would send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine and Israel after Senate Republicans blocked a compromise that would have paired the aid with tough border security measures and postponed debate without Make progress on implementing the emergency national security spending package.
Democrats, pushing to prevent the aid from falling victim to former President Donald J. Trump’s political campaign, promised a vote Thursday to advance a standalone foreign aid bill without immigration measures. But after a day of standoff on Capitol Hill, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, announced that senators needed more time to agree on how to proceed on this alternative, which Democrats and Republicans alike hoped would be successful .
Mr. Schumer had hoped for a quick vote on Wednesday on his “Plan B” to revive the aid package after the collapse of the border deal. But by Wednesday evening, action had stalled as Senate Republicans handled business slowly while they regrouped. They held a procedural vote for hours as they sought assurances from Democrats that they would be allowed to propose changes if they voted to pass the slimmed-down relief bill.
Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, told reporters there are ongoing discussions about how the money should be distributed to Ukraine and Israel.
Other Republicans seemed stuck in an endless loop, continuing to call for border changes just hours after they voted to scrap the relief package that included them. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called for the possibility of reinstating border regulations. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina told Fox News he would oppose the standalone foreign aid bill because “we should secure our southern border first.”
After 7 p.m., Mr. Schumer said the Senate was recessing to “give our Republican colleagues the night to figure themselves out.”
Despite the delay, there were glimmers of hope that the aid package for Ukraine and Israel would eventually be implemented. A bipartisan vote to advance the relief package would mark a remarkable turnaround after months of deadlock and likely put the measure on track for passage in the Senate within days.
The measure would give Ukraine $60.1 billion for its war against Russian aggression, $14.1 billion in security assistance to Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in global crises, including Palestinians and Ukrainians , send.
The attempt to get the legislation back on track came after Republicans blocked a bill that would link foreign aid to tough border security measures they had called for. That plan, negotiated over four months of arduous bipartisan negotiations, weakened Republican support after Mr. Trump vocally opposed it. It failed by a vote of 50-49, missing the 60 votes it would have needed to advance, as all but four Republicans voted to reject it.
Even if Democrats manage to revive the aid bill in the Senate, it will still face stiff headwinds in the Republican-led House of Representatives, where right-wing lawmakers oppose providing additional aid to Ukraine. Some have even threatened to oust Speaker Mike Johnson if he introduces a bill that includes it.
Members of both parties who have supported the package have warned that the fate of Eastern Europe and America’s reputation on the world stage will be at stake if Congress does not move forward.
Mr. Schumer made clear early Wednesday morning that he planned to quickly move forward with a “Plan B,” which he put into action earlier in the week when it became clear that the Ukraine border deal would not have the necessary 60 votes to be implemented forward.
“The Republicans have said they cannot pass through Ukraine without a border. Now they say they can’t cross Ukraine with the border. Today I am giving them a choice,” Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor on Wednesday before the back-to-back votes. He added: “I urge Republicans to answer yes.”
Mr. Schumer’s maneuver meant Republicans had to decide whether to vote twice in one day to block the measure, a grim prospect for a party that suffered a series of humiliating setbacks on Tuesday that demonstrated its inability to govern.
The strange dynamic meant that the border, once an issue that united Republicans, ended up helping more of them support funding for Ukraine. On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, and Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, both said they would vote for the standalone bill after opposing the border-Ukraine package.
Border deal negotiators, who had spent the past four months crafting what they said was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for conservative changes to immigration policy, voiced their displeasure before the deal collapsed in the Senate.
Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the top Republican negotiator, complained that politics had overtaken politics after Mr. Trump intervened in the debate and made clear that he did not want lawmakers to take action at the border while When he ran another election campaign, he made immigration one of his central concerns.
Mr. Lankford held up the pen he received when he was sworn in as a senator and said, “There’s no reason for me to have this pen if all we do is hold press conferences.” I can do press conferences from anywhere. But we can only legislate from this space.”
As he laid out the details of his bill, Mr. Lankford acknowledged that it had become impossible to counter the misinformation about it that was spread online and amplified by right-wing supporters of Mr. Trump.
He said that a prominent right-wing media personality told him directly: “If you try to introduce a bill this presidential year that solves the border crisis, I will do everything I can to destroy you.” Mr Lankford added: “They have kept their promise and have done everything they can to destroy me over the last few weeks.”
Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the independent Democrat from Arizona who has made it her mission in Congress to work with Republicans on the other side of the ballot, also criticized them in the Senate. She argued that the GOP has made clear it is interested in little more than political theater.
“After all these campaign photo ops in the desert, after all these trips to the border, this crisis is actually not much of a crisis,” said Ms. Sinema, who served as lead negotiator on the bipartisan bill. She warned any Republican who wanted to use the southern border as a backdrop for future political events: “Don’t come to Arizona. Bring your political theater to Texas. Don’t bring it into my state.”
Ultimately, Mr. Lankford was joined by only three other Republicans who voted to pass the bill. The others were Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and minority leader, voted against a bill he had supported until it became politically untenable.
For Mr. McConnell, who has made continuing to fund the war effort in Ukraine his sole priority this Congress, the immigration deal was ultimately secondary. He was expected to vote for the standalone foreign aid bill.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Johnson would not say whether the House would take up the standalone national security bill if and when it passes the Senate. “We’ll see what the Senate does; We are allowing the process to play out,” Mr Johnson told reporters.
That was a strikingly different tone than his stance on the border and Ukraine package, which he had repeatedly described in the House as “dead on arrival” even before he had seen the text. On Tuesday night, Republicans failed to push through a $17.6 billion bill that would send military aid only to Israel, a failure that Mr. Johnson sought to blame on Democrats.
But Mr Johnson faces enormous pressure over his right to reject the national security package. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, has threatened to oust him as speaker if he brings up any bill that includes funding for Ukraine.
Karoun Demirjian and Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
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2024-02-08 01:45:03
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