Tenney hits fellow Republicans for failure to advance border bill out of committee

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) berated her fellow Republicans on Saturday, blaming them for failing to pass a border security bill in the House.

“I saw footage earlier that the border security bill was not approved,” Tenney said in an interview on Fox News on Saturday. “That’s because three Republicans on our side, who have a slim majority on the Rules Committee, didn’t vote for border security, so we had to send it to the floor for suspension. Two-thirds vote. So these three Republicans and others actually obstructed border security.”

Tenney went on to praise House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “courage, humility and understanding of the issues we face.”

The New York lawmaker was one of 311 members of the House of Representatives who voted Saturday to pass a package of bills that would provide tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel. The bill passed 311-112-1 and included legislation that could put TikTok at risk.

The House bill now goes to the Senate for approval and could then go to President Biden’s desk.

Tenney said he did not support the bill in its entirety, but accused Republicans of using “tactics without a strategy.”

“We are engaging in tactics that many on our side are doing at the expense of strategy, and our side is going to fail. We have to take back seats, which is very important. That’s it.”

Passage of the foreign aid bill was a victory for Prime Minister Johnson. Mr. Johnson has been under threat of a motion to walk out from members of his own conference because of his support for a foreign aid package that requires support from Democrats to pass.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Johnson a “traitor” after the bill passed, while Sen. Ron Johnson slammed the bill’s passage, saying Congress “doesn’t belong to us.” He claimed to have spent the funds. The United States should instead focus on securing its own borders.