President Biden on Monday asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to “pay attention to what the Senate is doing” on the border security bill released by a bipartisan group of senators.
“My message to Chairman Johnson is to keep an eye on what’s going on in the Senate. We’ve got a bipartisan deal, so we’ll know the details this week and it’ll be introduced on Wednesday,” Biden said. He spoke to reporters while stopping by a small business in Las Vegas.
Johnson wants to declare the bill “void on arrival” in the House of Commons even if it passes the House of Lords, and instead separate elements of the bill that also include military aid to Israel.
“We don’t have enough agents. We don’t have enough people. We don’t have enough judges…I need help. Why can’t they help me?” Biden added.
When asked about the prospects for the bill to pass the Senate, Mr. Biden replied, “If we get 60 votes, we’ll be watching.” However, the bill faces opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, and it is difficult to predict the path to passage. has become difficult.
On Sunday night, senators from both parties unveiled a national security bill that includes $20 billion for border security. It gives the federal government temporary power to expel immigrants if their average daily number of crossings exceeds a set threshold, eliminates “catch-and-release,” raises asylum screening standards, and Measures will be taken to speed up the processing of applications.
The bill also includes $60 billion in funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia and $14.1 billion in funding for Israel in its fight against Hamas and aid to its Indo-Pacific allies, which were added to the bill after the presidential election late last year. It reflects a proposal the White House submitted to Congress shortly after its launch. War between Israel and Hamas.
Biden praised the border bill as a strong compromise and urged Congress to introduce it.
But within hours of announcing the bill, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “even worse than we expected” and declared in the House of Commons that “the bill was dead on being introduced”.
Democrats have argued for weeks that Congressional Republicans are refusing to make any compromises on the border, a potential political victory for Biden in an election year. Former President Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden over the flow of migrants at the southern border, and polls show voters have more confidence in Trump on immigration and the border.
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