Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said she and her House Republican colleagues see border security as “nonnegotiable,” and it should be prioritized over foreign aid as lawmakers debate a supplemental spending package.
The fight over the border has become intertwined with requests for additional aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
“For me and so many of my colleagues in the Republican House, we see the border package as nonnegotiable,” Cammack said in a Tuesday interview on NewsNation.
“It has to be a border security package first and foremost before we look abroad, or overseas, because if we do not secure this border, we’re staring down the barrel of the worst humanitarian, public health and national security crisis in modern history,” she added.
“This is unsustainable, and every town in America today is a border town as a result of the open border policies. So that is going to be the number one leverage point that we have in the House, no border package means no package for anything else.”
The Senate adjourned last month without a deal on funding for Ukraine or border security, ending a historically unproductive legislative session. Its members are not scheduled to come back until early January.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attributed the absence of achievements to the influence of former President Trump on the Republican-majority House.
“Under a Republican House majority this year, we saw a year marked by chaos, extremism and paralysis. There’s no question that divided government and MAGA extremism made legislating in 2023 very difficult,” Schumer said in floor remarks.
“For much of the year it was as if Donald Trump himself were running the show over in the House, making it exceedingly hard to get anything done,” he said.
Republicans have blamed President Biden for the problems at the border, while increasingly making it clear it will be a focus of the party’s in 2024.