Senate

Senate Republicans to block Ukraine funding after tempers flare at classified briefing

by Alexander Bolton and Al Weaver - 12/06/23 6:00 AM ET

Senate Republican leaders, ahead of a key procedural vote Wednesday, are urging their GOP colleagues to block legislation to provide more than $61 billion in military and foreign aid for Ukraine because the package does not include immigration and asylum reforms.

Any hopes of getting a bill passed this week were dashed when tempers boiled over at a classified briefing on the war in Ukraine and senators got into a shouting match over border security.

Senate Republicans now say they will reject Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) last-ditch offer to bring President Biden’s request for emergency foreign aid to the floor along with a bipartisan bill to crack down on the fentanyl supply chain and a guarantee Republicans can offer the first amendment on border security.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is urging GOP colleagues to vote against the motion to proceed, insisting that major immigration and policy reforms be included in whatever package Schumer brings to the floor.

“I’m advocating and I hope all of our members vote no on the motion to proceed to the shell [bill] to make the point, hopefully for the final time, that we insist on meaningful changes to the border,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Asked about Schumer’s plan to combine President Biden’s request for money for Ukraine and Israel with the bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act and to let Republicans offer the first amendment to the bill, McConnell said he wants border security as part of the base bill.

“They don’t want to deal with border security in the context of the supplemental. We do because we know that will guarantee an outcome” on asylum reform, McConnell explained.

Schumer said Senate negotiations over border security broke down Friday when Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) brought a proposal to the table that largely mirrored the reforms of the House-passed Secure the Border Act, H.R. 2.

And he said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw a wet blanket on the talks by telling Schumer in a phone call last week that he couldn’t pass any funding for Ukraine through the House unless it was paired with the House-passed immigration reforms, which got no Democratic votes.

“On Thursday, Speaker Johnson called me up and said he could only do Ukraine as long as H.R. 2 was attached to it. I told him that’s a non-starter,” Schumer recounted. “Second on Friday evening, the negotiations between Sens. [Kyrsten] Sinema [I-Ariz.], [Chris] Murphy [D-Conn.] and Lankford took a terrible turn. Basically, Sen. Lankford put on the table proposals that pretty much mirrored H.R. 2.”

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Schumer has offered to also include funding to protect synagogues, mosques and other nonprofit groups from desecration to the money for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and border security.

“If they believe border [security] should be part of Ukraine [aid], which is so vital to our country, let them propose an amendment that can get 60 votes. And that’s why I hope they will vote on the motion to proceed because I’m giving them this new opportunity to put any amendment they on the floor,” he said. “If they can’t meet that offer, then what’s going on? Then what we should be doing is just voting on Ukraine alone.”

A Democratic aide clarified Schumer meant he would move money for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region without immigration policy and border security reforms.

Schumer also said any Republican border security amendment to the bill would need to get 60 votes.

A Senate Republican aide, however, dismissed Schumer’s offer as “not a serious proposal,” indicating it will not get the nine Republican votes it needs to advance.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday unveiled a $110.5 billion supplemental funding package to provide military assistance to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine, and to invest in the United States’s industrial base to increase weapons and munitions production.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a leading proponent for approving more military aid for Ukraine, said Tuesday he would not vote for the motion to proceed.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, also signaled her reluctance to vote for it without a deal on border security.

“We need to have a border security piece, and my understanding is those negotiations are still going on so we’ll have to see what happens,” she said.

Tempers boiled over Tuesday afternoon during a classified briefing of senators in the sensitive compartmented information facility in the Capitol visitor center when McConnell asked for Lankford to be recognized to discuss Republican demands to reduce the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Schumer accused McConnell of hijacking the meeting.

“It was immediately hijacked by leader McConnell. The first question — instead of asking our panelists — he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk about the negotiations on the border, and that wasn’t the purpose of the meeting at all,” Schumer recalled afterward. “And then when I brought up the idea that they could do an amendment and have the ability to get something done on border, [Republican colleagues] got stuck.”

“They didn’t like it and even one of them started — was disrespectful — and started screaming at one of the generals and challenging him why he didn’t go to the border,” Schumer said.

Senate sources familiar with the meeting said that Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) got the “hottest” in expressing their frustration with the officials at the briefing for not putting more emphasis on the situation at the Southern border.

Senate Republicans left the meeting fuming that it didn’t cover much new ground or provide new information about the possibility of a military breakthrough in Ukraine.

Cramer later told reporters “I took them on with the microphone in my hand.”

“I asked Gen. Brown his best military advice. Is supporting Ukraine and Israel important enough that Democrats could at least consider reluctantly supporting some Southern border security? He wanted to talk about Ukraine,” he said, referring to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair CQ Brown Jr.

Cramer said Schumer went “nuts” over his line of questioning on the importance of border security compared to the wars in Israel and Ukraine.

Cramer said the amendment Schumer would let Republicans offer to the emergency foreign aid package “won’t pass because every Democrat will vote against it cause they don’t give a damn about our southern border.”

“It’s infuriating. He’s going to kill this bill by his unwillingness to deal with the southern border,” he said.

Tags Chuck Schumer James Lankford Joe Biden Mitch McConnell