House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Wednesday held back on his support for a bill that would tie billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine to U.S. border security measures. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is “closer” to a deal, as bipartisan negotiators have said.
Senate Republicans, led by James Lankford of Missouri, have announced amendments to U.S. immigration law and the U.S.-Mexico border as conditions for passing President Biden's October request for $61.4 billion in additional war funds to Ukraine. demands that construction of part of the wall be resumed. .
Schumer said discussions between Lankford, lead Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Biden administration officials continued during the Senate holiday break, and Schumer said “Democratic “There is virtually unanimous agreement among Republicans.” This is to fix the border. ”
“We're making progress. We're closer than ever,” Schumer told reporters about the ongoing negotiations. “But this is a very difficult problem. And there are still different things, different problems to overcome.”
Issues include finding “a way to get 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House,” the Senate majority leader said.
For Johnson, the House Republicans' immigration bill (H.R. 2), passed in May, is “a necessary ingredient” for his caucus to consider the deal currently underway in the Senate.
“This is not about sending more money here,” Johnson, who visited the southern border with a delegation of about 60 House Republicans on Wednesday, told CNN. “It's about changing policy.”
He noted that it is “most House Republicans,” not just conservative House Liberals, who are threatening to shut down the government unless a proper immigration deal is reached, a deal that “closes the border.” did.
“There's no bill, but let me tell you, I don't care if they call it HR2, I care about the clause that closes the borders,” Johnson said.
“I don't think now is the time to do comprehensive immigration reform, because to your point, immigration reform is very complicated. It's very complicated work, but we can close the borders. He could do it overnight. The president has existing authority to do that under existing federal law, and he refuses to do so.”
Schumer called House Republicans' border inspections “very good,” but suggested they would not help build consensus.
“It's all very well to go to the border, but the way to get anything done is to work on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis, like we are in the Senate, so we can tackle Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “It would free up funds for the region,” he said, “and humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.”
“If the Senate gets something done in a bipartisan way, there will be a lot of pressure on the House to get something done as well,” Schumer added.
The House and Senate will reconvene next week.
