Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that language for a long-awaited supplemental spending bill to fund aid and border security for Ukraine and Israel will be released in the coming days and voted on next week. It was announced on .
“We plan to post the full text of the national security supplement as early as tomorrow, and no later than Sunday,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, adding that he would submit the motion for a vote by the full chamber a day later. By Wednesday at the latest.
“There will be no more voting days. [next week]” Schumer emphasized. “We strive to respect our members’ schedules and minimize inconvenience, but these challenges at the border, in Ukraine, and in the Middle East are too great.”
Last October, President Biden announced an additional $106 billion package, including $61.4 billion in military aid to Ukraine, $14.3 billion to Israel and $13.6 billion for U.S. border security.
At least 60 votes are needed to break the Senate filibuster, which would require the House to consider the bill before sending it to Biden’s desk.
The White House warned in December that funding for Ukraine was at risk of running out by the end of the year, but Kiev President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later told Congressional leaders that military funding would not run out until the end of this month. Ta.
Mr. Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have staunchly supported funding for Ukraine, with the latter saying Thursday that the European Union will spend another 540 million dollars this week on Kiev’s war effort against Russia. He pointed out that he had approved $1 billion.
But both men are pushing for the Senate to take action on immigration reform as the U.S. faces record numbers of illegal immigration crossings and a surge in human and drug trafficking at the southern border.
But hardline Senate Republicans blamed the alarming statistics on the Biden administration’s policy changes, pointing to a leaked provision that would allow more than 1 million immigrants to enter the country illegally each year. Rejected.
“The number should be zero,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Wednesday of the report in a fiery speech on the floor, in which he called on Biden to use executive authority to close the border. I asked. .
Other possible solutions include granting humanitarian parole to tens of thousands of migrants at designated airports, as well as unaccompanied migrant children under 13 and other migrants deemed mentally incompetent. It may also be possible to pay the attorney’s fees provided by the
It also increases the number of immigrant worker visas to 50,000 per year for spouses and children of H-1B holders and other immigrants within 180 days of release into the United States by Customs and Border Protection. will be granted a work visa.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) has come under fire from his conservative colleagues for helping negotiate the bill with Sen. Chris Murphy. (Connecticut) and Kyrsten Sinema (I, Ariz.) — However, the accuracy of the leaked provisions has not been confirmed.
Other Republicans have accused Mr. McConnell of usurping “influence” by tying border security provisions to national security provisions for Israel, which continues to fight terrorists from Ukraine and Hamas.
Negotiations appeared to have stalled, with former President Donald Trump criticizing the deal as a “terrible open border betrayal of the United States.”
On Wednesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told reporters that if any of the leaked information is accurate, the Senate bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House. Ta. The House is already considering impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. .
