In a recent turn of events, President Joe Biden, when questioned about the possibility of a stand-alone spending bill solely addressing the wars in Ukraine and Israel, responded, "not gonna concede that now."
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seems to have a different plan in mind.
According to NBC, Schumer informed Senate Democrats of his intention to force a vote on the funding. This funding was part of a bill that allocated $60 billion to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel, and $20 billion to the US border. Critics argue that the spending did more to escalate illegal immigration than to curb it. House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that the bill, dubbed the "border never closes," would not be considered in the House.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was instrumental in the bill's creation, withdrew his support on Tuesday amid growing opposition. He now advocates for a separate vote on aid for Ukraine, devoid of effective border measures.
Last fall, when Biden requested additional funds for the war in Ukraine, Republicans insisted they would not approve it without tangible border security for America. The border bill failed to deliver this, and now the funding issue is back on the table.
Senator Mike Lee foresaw this development following the disastrous Emergency National Security Supplemental bill. The bill's text was met with widespread disapproval from Republicans in both the House and Senate.
Lee stated, "I have it on good authority that The Firm," referring to Schumer and McConnell, "intends to force through the Ukraine aid portion of the supplemental aid package (minus the border bill) tomorrow. Do you want to give $60B to Ukraine, knowing that the entire budget of the U.S. Marine Corps in FY2023 was $53.8B?"
McConnell added, "There are other parts of this supplemental theyre extremely important as well Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan. We still, in my view, ought to tackle the rest of it because its important. Not that the border isnt important, but we cant get an outcome. So thats where I think we ought to head, and its up to Senator Schumer to decide how to repackage this, if in fact we dont go on to it."
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