Senate Republicans back away from border policy bill, leaving aid for Ukraine in doubt
WASHINGTON — Facing a torrent of criticism from conservatives, Senate Republicans on Monday distanced themselves from a bipartisan proposal intended to clamp down on illegal border crossings, signaling a likely defeat in Congress that would leave leaders with no clear path to approve wartime aid for Ukraine.
Senate negotiators on Sunday night released a $118 billion package of border enforcement policy and funding for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, hoping that the details would win over skeptics. The bill represented a rightward tilt in Senate negotiations over border measures, yet the backlash was intense from conservatives. They savaged the border policy proposal as insufficient, with former President Donald Trump leading the charge.
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“This is a gift to the Democrats. And this sort of is a shifting of the worst border in history onto the shoulders of Republicans,” Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, said Monday on “The Dan Bongino Show.” “That’s really what they want. They want this for the presidential election so they can now blame the Republicans for the worst border in history.”
Many Senate Republicans — even those who have expressed support for Ukraine aid and the contours of the border policy changes — raised doubts Monday they would support the package. A private Republican meeting was scheduled in the evening to discuss it.
Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, exited a meeting with other GOP leaders and told reporters, “I think the proposal is dead.”
Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved toward a key test vote on Wednesday.
“The actions here in the next few days are an inflection point in history,” the New York Democrat said in a floor speech Monday afternoon. “The security of our nation and of the world hangs in the balance.”
Schumer worked closely with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on the border security package after the Kentucky Republican had insisted on the pairing as a way to win support for Ukraine aid. The Democratic leader urged his colleagues across the aisle to “tune out the political noise” and vote yes.
“For years, years our Republican colleagues have demanded we fix the border. And all along they said it should be done through legislation. Only recently did they change that when it looks like we might actually produce legislation,” he said.
Both leaders have emphasized for months the urgency of approving tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine’s fight, saying that the U.S.’s ability to buttress democracies around the world was at stake.
Yet with the funding stuck in Congress, the Defense Department has halted shipments of ammunition and missiles to Kyiv.
