Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday he would keep the chamber in a scheduled recess to finalize and vote on bills that provide additional aid to Ukraine and improve US border security.
Schumer (D-NY) announced that he would call the Senate back into session Monday and keep them in “no matter what” until a vote on the additional spending package — even as some Republicans scoffed that the Democratic leader’s timeline was a pipe dream.
Negotiators from both parties have been scrambling to hammer out a compromise on immigration issues, which Republicans insist is mandatory before they clear any further Ukrainian aid.
“Over the last several days, negotiations on a path forward for additional national security assistance have made good progress,” Schumer said on the floor.
“If we believe something is important and urgent, we should stay and finish the job. That certainly happens with extras.”
Chuck Schumer postponed the winter break in hopes of getting a deal on Ukraine finalized. Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
.@SenSchumer (D-NY) on Ukraine and Israel funding: “After we finish today, the Senate will come back on Monday. That will give negotiators from the White House, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans time to work through the weekend in an effort to reach a framework agreement work.” pic.twitter.com/L2dhKQe5D4
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 14, 2023
Some Republicans are not confident that an agreement can be reached by the end of the year because of the complexity of drafting the legislative text, although negotiators are touting progress on the framework.
“He’s dreaming,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CNN about Schumer’s goals for broke the deal next week.
“I don’t care,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch supporter of Ukraine, told Punchbowl News. “I’m looking for results, not timelines. There is no legal text.”
Mike Johnson is open to calling the House again next week, but is unwilling to do so if there is no deal. Reuters
On the House side, many MPs have already left for their home districts after Thursday morning’s vote, with the chamber not set to reconvene until Jan. 9.
Schumer said he has asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to reconsider his previous opposition to keeping lawmakers in D.C. until the Senate can finish their work on the bill.
“Can we go back?” Johnson said during a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday “I’m going to stay here forever, but I don’t know that all of our colleagues are going to be able to.”
Underlying the negotiations is a deep divide between Republicans and Democrats over how to deal with asylum seekers crossing the southwest border.
During fiscal year 2023, more than 2.47 million encounters were reported along the Mexican border, with more than 240,000 migrants apprehended in October, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.
President Biden stepped up pressure on Republicans this week to implement an additional package in Ukraine. Reuters
When immigrants claim asylum at the border, most of them are usually given paperwork for a court date and then released to the US.
Republicans have pushed for some kind of authority to restrict the entry of asylum seekers, which has angered progressives who believe the US has a moral obligation to accept them.
Recently, the White House increased its involvement in the negotiations, reportedly sending Chief of Staff Jeff Zients to join the discussions led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.)
The White House has expressed openness to border authorities deporting migrants without screening for asylum under certain conditions when daily crossing levels are particularly high, the Washington Post reported.
They have also reportedly floated an expansion of detention facilities and increased deportations to appease Republicans.
Without confirming the details of the deal, President Biden has publicly stated that he has made a compromise offer to Republicans.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to lawmakers this week to give his war-torn country more weapons to fend off Russian invaders. PRESS SERVICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE/AFP via Getty Images
That doesn’t seem to sit well with some Democrats.
“It is disgraceful that President Biden and his administration are considering selling out immigrants and asylum seekers to appease extreme Republicans who jeopardize the security of our nation and our allies just to score political points,” recently charged Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was outraged in a statement Tuesday.
“We [Democrats] have to make a combination [for the 2024 election],” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told CNN Thursday. “The alliance involves many young voters. It involved many immigrant voters and people of color. This immigration issue is very important to them.”
Still, lawmakers close to the negotiations insist that progress has been made.
“We can see the agreement. We have to go through a lot to get there. But I can see it,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) told Politico Thursday.
“They really talked about picking up a pen and actually writing the words. So close,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told Punchbowl News.
Chris Murphy is one of the main negotiators trying to secure an agreement on the border, a key point in the talks on Ukraine. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
Schumer herself acknowledged that this was “probably one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to get through,” but added that “we’ve got to get it done.”
Lankford said he “will continue to work as long as it’s daylight,” but was hesitant about the possibility of a deal soon given the “highly technical” nature of immigration law.
“At this point, if things don’t come together very, very quickly, this moves into January,” he told Fox News Digital Thursday.
The Oklahoman Republican added that “the White House has so far been unwilling to put things in writing.”
Biden initially asked Congress to greenlight $24 billion to Ukraine in August. Congress has refused to do so amid a bitter House Republican civil war over government funding.
James Lankford, a leading Republican negotiator, warned writing the technical language of the agreement before Christmas would be difficult. AP
Then, in October, Biden raised the price tag to more than $106 billion in a package that featured $61.4 billion for Ukraine as well as funding for Israel, Taiwan and the border.
This week, he told Republicans that failure to pass the supplement would be a “Christmas present” to Putin.
So far, Congress has approved about $113 billion in both military and humanitarian aid to the war-torn Eastern European nation, but not all of that money has been spent.
The administration announced this week a $200 million military aid package to Ukraine, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky privately told lawmakers earlier this week that Ukraine’s aid may not fully run out until February
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
