Senate releases $118 billion bipartisan aid proposal for Israel, Ukraine, border security
By: Story by Rebecca Picciotto
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
- Senators released the full details of their highly anticipated bipartisan proposal to jointly fund Ukraine, Israel and the U.S. southern border.
- President Joe Biden initially proposed the aid package in October, but the bill has been stalled in closed-door Senate negotiations for months.
- The bill will likely meet stark opposition from House Republicans who proposed their own Israel-only funding package earlier in the weekend.
Senators on Sunday released the details of a $118.2 billion bipartisan aid proposal for Ukraine, Israel and the southern U.S. border, after months of painstaking, closed-door negotiations.
The long-awaited bill requests $60.1 billion for Ukraine aid, $14.1 billion for Israel and $20.2 billion to improve security at the U.S. border . It also includes smaller pockets of funding for humanitarian assistance in war-torn regions, and defense operations in the Red Sea and Taiwan .
President Joe Biden initially proposed a more than $105 billion aid package in October. The Senate's new deal roughly matches the funding proportions Biden had requested for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The central difference in the new proposal is over $13 billion more in border security funding, which was a major point of contention in the months-long Senate talks.
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the border, which has seen record numbers of migrant crossings in recent months. Democrats have countered that the president needs further executive authority to institute more aggressive border security.
The president said Sunday that he supports the Senate's bipartisan proposal, including the term that gives him "new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed."
I urge Congress to come together and swiftly pass this bipartisan agreement. Get it to my desk so I can sign it into law immediately," Biden said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said a vote is scheduled for the bill on Wednesday.
The publication of the bill marks a small victory for Senate negotiators who have gone back and forth for months trying to strike a deal.
"I know the overwhelming majority of Senators want to get this done, and it will take bipartisan cooperation to move quickly," Schumer said in a statement following the proposal's release. "Senators must shut out the noise from those who want this agreement to fail for their own political agendas."
Just as soon as the Senate back-patting is over, the proposal will face its next major battle: House Republicans.
Republican lawmakers have been preparing to greet the Senate bill with hostility.
Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., on Saturday announced a House proposal that would fund Israel alone, a blatant attempt to preempt the Senate's broader foreign aid bill. Johnson said the House would vote on the bill next week.
The White House criticized the House's counterproposal, deeming it a political stunt.
"We see it as a ploy that's being put forward on the House side right now, as not being a serious effort to deal with the national security challenges America faces," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "From our perspective, the security of Israel should be sacred. It shouldn't be part of any political game."
Despite the White House's scolding, the funding package has increasingly grown into a political pawn over the past few weeks.
As the election kicks into high gear, Republican lawmakers who once appeared ready to compromise have suddenly gone cold on the deal, aware that its passage would make a convenient victory for the Biden 2024 campaign.
Johnson has been a prime example of the tone shift.
In mid-January, he joined Biden and Schumer for what he called a "productive" meeting specifically about the border negotiations. After the meeting, in an expression of bipartisan hope, Johnson said the officials had reached a level of "consensus."
But former president and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has reportedly put pressure on Republicans to torpedo the deal so that he can continue using the border crisis as a line of attack in his campaign.
In a Sunday interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Johnson denied that Trump had any outside influence: "He's not calling the shots. I am calling the shots for the House."
But a week after Johnson's optimistic meeting with Schumer and Biden, the speaker reversed course and expressed cynicism about the deal.
"If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway," Johnson wrote in a letter to his colleagues in late January.
The White House has called out the mood swing.
"Suddenly, we've heard a change of tune," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a recent briefing. "Actually tackle the problem instead of playing politics with it."
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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"The president said Sunday that he supports the Senate's bipartisan proposal, including the term that gives him "new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed."
Two questions:
1) It gives him the authority to shut down the border. Will Joe Biden exercise that authority?
2) What is the threshold for the border being "overwhelmed?" Will it be the 1,000 a day that Jeh Johnson called too much, or will it be the 5,000 a day that was being discussed under this bill?
I would feel better about it if the threshold was defined and it stated biden would (not could) shut the border at that point.
Democrats are awfully hard to trust on border security and immigration.
We now know the first "IF:"
Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema told reporters the legislation would secure the U.S. southern border, including by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily "shut down" the frontier to most migrants if there are an average of more than 5,000 crossing attempts per day over seven days.
US Senate unveils $118 billion bipartisan bill on border security with aid for Ukraine, Israel (msn.com)
5000 a day for 7 days? Does that number include those that actually bother to report to a legal port of entry? Automatic non starter. Trusting Mayorkas to carry out any law is just damn foolish.
Also what is with the over $20 billion dollars McConnell and the Establishment Republican Senators negotiated? Democrats balked at giving Trump half that much to secure the border. What is the money going to be used for? How much is to complete fencing Brandon stopped on his first day in office? How much is for new detection systems along the border to track and stop illegals from crossing? How much is for hiring new BP (whose only job will be to take immigrants to induction centers along the border); new leftists judges (to speed up the legal process and grant citizenship to as many illegals as possible); and new buildings- enter building and take docket #; wait to be called where judge will spend a few minutes hearing case and give stamp of approval; enter room and wait 1 hour while fellow newly minted US citizens gather- then be formally sworn in and given a tax payer funded Democrat registration card.
It is time for McConnell and long time Establishment Republicans to be jettisoned from the Senate. Enough of this caving to Democrats for the sake of saying they got something done.
If that is true than all the senators on this committee have accomplished is giving the dems talking points from now until election day and legitimize Joe's desire to do nothing.
That all the open border people enthusiastically support the bill speaks volumes. It makes 2 million illegals a year "normal" when 365,000 was a crisis under Obama of all people. It "gives" Biden powers he already has and the option to do nothing with them, just like now. How would the security portion of this look any different if Democrats themselves passed it? It creates the illusion of working on the problem while accomplishing nothing, the ideal Democratic border bill.
It reminds me of the John McCain approach to border control. In Washington, he'd work for mass immigration, loose restrictions etc.. Then, during election season, he cut campaign ads touting what a hawk he was on the border and how controlling it was of utmost importance. It was easier for him to talk out of both sides of his mouth in those days when the MSM had better control of shaping the media and social media became so prevalent. You just can't do that now and apparently some Republicans simply aren't aware of that. The bullshit gets exposed much more widely and quickly now
Yup, Joe is going to say he wanted to change course after 3 years of an open border but they wouldn't let him.
I couldn't have said it better.
DHS has already shut down sections of the border multiple times under Brandon's watch when illegals were riding trains up by the thousands from Mexico. Of course that was for the illegal immigrants' safety. Concerned they would fall of the trains when they were passing through tunnels, going around bends at speed, or bridges.
Wonder what McConnell gave his buddy Brandon in this round of appeasing/helping out a former Establishment Senator?
Johnson is right- this bill should be DOA once it reaches the House. Especially since the chicken shit Senate won't release the text. Probably worried about the fall out as they sell us all out again.
I think McConnell has done a little too much taste testing at Kentucky's Bourbon Distilleries.
Johnson is right- this bill should be DOA once it reaches the House.
Better than making that statement he should make the appropriate changes in it and send it right back to the Senate.
Imo border security should have been a separate stand alone issue not attached as a rider to another bill.
Biden actually set it up that way and Republicans thought he had trapped himself. Basically, he has responded with signing anything that will free up his aid funding.
Normalizing 2 million illegals a year should be a non starter. Horrible idea and will allow cartels to regulate flow below the trigger.
Would allow? Already does.
In addition to secure fences large "NO VACANCY" and "NO ADMITTANCE" signs need to be posted.
"Sorry, we're closed, the moose out front should have told you...."
What moose? They're all protecting the Canadian border from illegal American immigrants. LOL
It was a National Lampoon Vacation reference, I believe.
Every year going forward, no matter how bad it gets at the border, the emergency authority can only be invoked for fewer days. It actually takes away power from the President to control the border, probably a hedge against Trump winning. This would handcuff him more and more every year that passes and keep the borders open.
Whatever marginal improvements the bills contain in processing asylum claims are more than lost by the proposed law's acceptance of massive amounts of illegal immigration.
Pure piece of shyte "policy".
Either enter, correctly, three funding bills, two funding bills and an immigration bill or get off the friggin' pot.
Ukraine needs not be on our watchlist - check with NATO.
Israel needs not be on our watchlist since "someone" has decided that they are the "moderator" for the ME.
Immigration, as usual, is the pooch getting screwed - to appease who?????
Get off your azzes and do your job for THE U.S.A.
Some progressive Democrats are angry the measure does nothing to provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people who have lived in the U.S. for many years, including "Dreamer" immigrants who were brought in as children.
Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema told reporters the legislation would secure the U.S. southern border, including by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily "shut down" the frontier to most migrants if there are an average of more than 5,000 crossing attempts per day over seven days.
US Senate unveils $118 billion bipartisan bill on border security with aid for Ukraine, Israel (msn.com)
It is worse than expected.
No bribery, force the Senate to do the right thing, they already have a border bill from the house, and Johnson says they will get an Israel funding bill this week, then send a Ukraine bill,
In the meantime, they are certain they can come for at least one more year:
Imagine living in one of the border states?
Arguably the worst part of the bill:
This just in:
C onservatives have attacked a provision of the new border security bill that would only allow legal challenges to be made in Washington D.C.
The bill would strip the power of Texas and other states to challenge some of the its provisions in their local federal court.
Conservative commentators were quick to denounce the provision, contained on page 221 of the bill. Bill Shipley, who was a federal prosecutor for over 20 years, decried the its court provisions on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
"This would prevent plaintiffs - like the State of Texas - from filing suit in Texas federal courts. This is corrupt," he wrote.
After outlining the provisions under which immigrants can seek judicial review of a deportation order, the bill states:
"The United States District Court for the District of Columbia shall have sole and original jurisdiction to hear challenges, whether constitutional or otherwise, to the validity of this section or any written policy directive, written policy guideline, written procedure, or the implementation thereof."
Reacting to the latest provisions in the border security bill, conservative writer and self-style "deportation scientist" Mike Howell wrote on X that the bill "puts far left DC district court in charge."
Texas Stripped of Powers in Border Security Bill (msn.com)