Tackling the Biden administration’s national supplemental funding request is at the top of the agenda as the Senate returns from Thanksgiving recess this week, but it may prove to be a difficult feat for GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber who are trying to strike a deal on including tighter border security provisions.
Disagreement over tying Israel and Ukraine funding together also persists, as GOP lawmakers who have grown skeptical of aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion last year are more in favor of pausing aid to the Eastern European country.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, one of the lead lawmakers striving to split up Israel and Ukraine aid, told Fox News Digital that funding for Israel and stronger border security measures, like stricter asylum standards and more border patrol agents, should go hand in hand.
“What we need is Republican leadership to stand up and say, ‘Hell no, we will not vote cloture on anything that doesn’t include meaningful border security,'” Marshall told Fox News Digital in an interview Monday.
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Marshall said the GOP-controlled House leadership “are on a different planet” than the Democrat-controlled upper chamber and are no closer to a deal than they were at the start of October on border security negotiations. However, the “cry for border security becomes louder,” he added.
Republican senators released a series of measures that are largely drawn from the House GOP signature border and immigration legislation, H.R. 2, passed in the Republican-controlled House earlier this year. The measures would be a condition for Republicans to agree to a $106 billion request for aid for Ukraine and Israel, which also includes $14 billion for border operations.
GOP Sens. Marshall, Ted Cruz, JD Vance and Mike Lee introduced a stand-alone bill to funnel aid to Israel without tying it to Ukraine aid in October. The bill, called the Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act, is an alternative to President Biden’s $106 billion emergency supplemental bill.
“We can’t even get a small amount of GOP lawmakers to agree on Ukraine funding, on border security, let alone Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House,” Marshall told Fox News Digital. “That’s why we gotta pull out Israel funding.”
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The Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act, if passed, would provide $14.3 billion to Israel, including $10.6 billion for assistance through the Department of Defense (DOD), $3.5 billion for foreign military financing and $200 million to help protect U.S. embassies and personnel. But Senate Democrats blocked the proposal when it was brought to the floor this month.
Senate Democrats have said a package without Ukraine funding would be dead-on-arrival. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have both signaled the GOP will pass more Ukraine funding if a deal is struck for tighter immigration laws.
The White House’s supplemental request, which was sent to Congress in October, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for some border security provisions, and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance, totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there’s $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.
Republicans in the upper chamber say the border provisions, as outlined by the White House, do not address much-needed policy changes like stricter asylum standards at the southern border.
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In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent Sunday night, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. announced a classified all-senators briefing on the Ukraine-Russia war in the coming days.
“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 said in the letter.
But Marshall said he’s not budging. The U.S. government already sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine, and “they’re making no progress,” he said.
“Every three days they try to shove Ukraine down our throat, and I don’t get it,” he said. “Everything that could be said has been said about it. We’re not dumb. This is not a rocket science deal going on in Ukraine. I’m almost insulted they keep trying to just say the same thing over and over, louder and louder like it’s going to change my mind.”
