Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has informed the Senate through a ‘Dear Colleague Letter’ they will be taking up supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel the week of December 4th. According to Schumer’s letter the Senate will likely not include any of the Republican controlled House language (H.R.2) on border security – Schumer referred to the House plan as “partisan” and “hard-right” in his letter.
“The biggest holdup to the national security assistance package right now is the insistence by our Republican colleagues on partisan border policy as a condition for vital Ukraine aid. This has injected a decades old, hyper-partisan issue into overwhelmingly bipartisan priorities,” Schumer wrote. “Democrats stand ready to work on common-sense solutions to address immigration, but purely partisan hard-right demands, like those in H.R. 2, jeopardize the entire national security supplemental package.”
Senate Democrats and the Biden White House are insistent the supplemental aid for Ukraine and Israel be passed as a single legislative package. They fear the collapsing support for Ukraine in the United States could embolden House Republicans to pass a funding supplemental for Israel while leaving Ukraine funding to languish. Since September, Biden has been pushing lawmakers on Capitol Hill to take up a massive funding proposal for Ukraine – with cash for Israel added to the plan after the barbaric October terrorist attack by Hamas.
For House Republicans, a robust border security plan is a must if they’re to take up any defense supplemental. Republican voters have indicated in poll-after-poll the need to Congress to increase border protections and funding to end the illegal-immigration crisis which continues to cause fiscal and social strain on cities across the U.S.
show less
