Schumer: Negotiators ‘closer than we have been’ on border deal 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated negotiators are inching closer to a border deal that could unlock aid for Ukraine, while pressing the House to jump on board with the eventual agreement. 

“We’re making progress. We’re closer than we have been, but this is a very difficult issue and there’s still different issues to be overcome with,” Schumer told reporters after opening the Senate for the second half of the 118th Congress. 

“Everyone’s going to have to give something to get this done. No one can just get his or her own way,” he said. 

The negotiators, led by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and top White House officials, have continued talks throughout the holidays and reconvened in person on Tuesday. 

The group had been hoping to secure an agreement before lawmakers broke for the holiday break, but they were unable to reach a framework deal, let alone complete legislative text in time to vote by then. 

The Senate reconvenes Monday.

Schumer’s remarks came as a group of 60 House Republicans, headlined by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), is traveling to the border near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday to highlight their concerns about border security. December marked an all-time high in border crossings with roughly 300,000 encounters, the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this week. 

House Republicans passed their border bill last year, H.R.2, which received no Democratic votes. Schumer has called on the House GOP to back off its insistence on including its provisions in a border deal and said a bipartisan bill is the only way to get aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian purposes through Congress.

“It’s very nice you go to the border,” Schumer said Wednesday, “but the way to get something done is work, as we are in the Senate, on a bipartisan solution to the border crisis. … I hope the Speaker will realize that if he wants to solve the problem on the border.” 

“When the House clings to H.R. 2 as the only solution … we’re not going to get a deal,” Schumer continued. “We’re willing to meet the Republicans a good part of the way. I think now in the last few days, many Republicans have begun to realize that we are willing to do that and how serious we are about getting this done.”

The Democratic leader declined to discuss how a potential bipartisan bill would move, given that Congress is staring down a pair of government funding deadlines on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.

“We’ve got to get agreements on each of these and we’ll see how the two fit together if they fit together at all,” he said. 

One person who has not been part of the ongoing border negotiations is Johnson, who Schumer said has been “quite involved” in government funding talks, adding that the onus is on the Senate to get a deal first.