The Senate is on track to pass an additional $95 billion national security package to support Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region after the Senate passed several key procedural votes Monday night. It’s progressing.
The additional package does not include any border provisions, and several Republican senators spent several days starting Saturday collectively filibustering the package on the Senate floor, which continued into Tuesday morning. The bill passed its final hurdle Monday night, and depending on how long Republicans are able to delay the vote, a final vote could come any time Tuesday or as late as Wednesday. There is sex.
The bill does not yet have a time frame agreed upon. This means that there is a formal agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) regarding the time allotted for consideration of the bill or its amendments. It means that it was done. Both party leaders are urging their members to pass this bill.
Republicans are trying to include tough border security legislation in foreign aid package
Schumer and McConnell (Getty Images)
Sen. Mike Lee, who spent four hours on the floor Saturday slamming the bill, urged senators to reconsider voting to pass it.
“We cannot send billions of dollars to Ukraine while our own borders are bleeding,” Lee said Saturday. “This betrayal is all the more abhorrent because it occurred at a time when the nation’s eyes were on sports, family, and entertainment.”
By Monday, Republican senators were hoping for a breakthrough to pass the amendment. Some of the proposed amendments included stronger provisions regarding border security.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, said Monday morning that “leaders on both sides of the aisle and bill managers on both sides of the aisle are trying to rein in spending on the Appropriations Committee.” He is working diligently day and night.” Consider debating a series of amendments submitted by senators on both sides of the aisle and try to find consensus to vote on them. ”
“Clearly, for that to happen, we will need the cooperation of all member states and, because the number of amendments is huge, we will need to agree on time,” she said.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a hawk who opposes continued aid to Ukraine, also spent much time on the floor before Monday’s vote.
Senate Republicans prepare for long battle over Ukraine and aid to Israel
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visit St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 20, 2023, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine. (Reuters/Gleb Galanich)
“Senate Republican leadership, including the senators who voted for this bill, have assured us that this is a public amendment process,” Paul told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Mike Lee spent four hours trying to kill the amendment, and the Democrats didn’t accept zero amendments. So, yeah, I think the Democrats weren’t honest or upfront about accepting the amendment. I believe.”
Schumer said on the floor Sunday that there would be a “fair and reasonable amendment vote” on the floor “if there is any chance of accelerating this process.”
However, Republicans opposed to passing the aid bill do not want the process to be expedited, arguing that amendments should be allowed even if they do not support the bill as a whole.
“And members on their side are actually saying that because we don’t support the entire bill, we shouldn’t even have the right to make amendments,” Paul said Monday night. “No, this is a terrible process and we’re going to keep fighting them on this issue, and the talking filibuster is going on as we speak, and we have speakers until the night. As long as the talking filibuster continues.”
Senate packages tank immigration, foreign aid spending after Republican pushback over border rules
The scene after a Russian airstrike destroyed a civilian settlement in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on March 13, 2022. (Photo credit: National Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who voted against the foreign aid-only package, also told FOX News Digital on Monday night that the “amendment would be a big deal for some senators and congressmen. “We don’t want to make any amendments because it would be a bad vote.” The Democratic Party’s election is approaching. ” He explained that the party is divided over the issue of additional aid to Ukraine.
The former soccer coach also proposed amendments to the package that he said would “mostly close the border” and “do things at the border that are already set out by law.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also introduced an amendment identical to the House’s immigration bill, HR2, which would restore most Trump-era restrictions, hire additional Border Patrol agents and strengthen asylum screening. .
Republican Sens. Roger Marshall, J.D. Vance and Josh Hawley were just a few senators to voice their opposition to the bill on Monday and maintain a filibuster. Meanwhile, Republican Sens. Mitt Romney and Thom Tillis are just a few urging their colleagues to pass the bill without further “delay.”
The aid package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific. Democrats brought the bill to a vote last Wednesday after Republicans blocked the $118 billion bill, which also includes numerous border and immigration provisions.
Republicans previously said they would not approve funding for Ukraine unless it first secured its controlled southern border. The Republican-led House of Representatives said in a statement Monday that it would not pass the Senate’s foreign aid bill without border security provisions and would instead work on its own bill.
“House Republicans have been clear from the beginning of debate that the so-called national security supplement bill must recognize that national security begins at our own borders,” Johnson said in a statement Monday evening. Partially stated. “The mission of the National Security Supplemental Act was to secure America’s own borders before sending additional foreign aid around the world, which the American people demand and deserve. Border Policy from the Senate Now, without any changes, “the House must continue to take ownership of these important issues. America deserves better than the status quo in the Senate.”
