House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) blasted the Senate’s bipartisan border deal hours after the Senate released the long-awaited text of the deal, saying the deal was “even worse than we anticipated.” “Bad,” he wrote, and declared the agreement “dead on arrival.” House.
“We’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected and will be far from ending the border disaster the president has wrought.” As the Democratic chief negotiator declared: Under this bill, “the border will never close,” Johnson said. I wrote to X.
“If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival,” he added.
Johnson’s scathing statement echoes comments he made before the House of Lords announced the deal. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously said that if the contents of the bill were anything like what the press had speculated, it would be dead on arrival. House.
Shortly before Johnson’s statement, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who oversees the House calendar, said the Senate bill “will not be voted on in the House.”
The $118 billion in national security aid includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel, aid to Indo-Pacific allies, and a bipartisan border security agreement.
The $20 billion Border Security portion would give the federal government temporary authority to expel immigrants if their average daily number of crossings exceeds a threshold, end “catch-and-release,” and cut back on asylum screening. The aim is to raise standards and speed up the processing of applications. Among other provisions.
Johnson’s announcement was a major blow to the three Senate negotiators who had been trying for months to reach an agreement on the politically thorny issue of border security. Republicans had insisted that any aid to Ukraine be combined with legislation to address issues at the southern border.
But in recent weeks, as negotiators move closer to a deal, Republicans have grown colder about bipartisan talks, saying Biden has tools at his disposal to address the situation at the southern border and new legislation from Congress is needed. He claimed that there was no. . It also faces pressure from former President Trump over Truth Social, saying Republicans will “get everything we need to stop this invasion of millions and millions of people.” He urged them to oppose any border agreement unless this is possible.
Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the lead Republican negotiator on the border deal, reacted almost immediately to Johnson’s decision, saying he was “perplexed” that the bill could be worse than expected. “
“How do we build a border wall, expand deportation flights, expand ICE officers, Border Patrol agents, and detention beds, create a faster process for deportation, and solve many long-standing challenges? I’m a little confused that the situation is even worse than they anticipated. There is an urgent need to resolve the deadline issues and loopholes that have existed in asylum law and stop chaos at the border now. It’s empowering,” he said on a call with reporters.
“It’s a little confusing,” Lankford continued. “We have to be able to work with the chair’s team on that to find out which parts are ‘worse than expected’ based on the actual text. Hopefully everyone has had a chance.” Try reading through the text. ”
Al Weaver contributed.Updated at 10:26 p.m.
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