Republicans Thwart Biden’s $110B Aid to Ukraine, Demand Border Security First
Senate Republicans voted against allowing the Senate to begin debating a $110 billion national security resolution, which included funding for Israel and Ukraine, in response to Democratic demands that the resolution include measures on immigration policy.
In recent days, the White House has intensified its warnings that the global democratic system could suffer greatly if the funding is not approved.
President Biden stated on Wednesday that if Congress did not approve funding for Ukraine before it departs for the holidays, it would further cement the position of Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
In private, lawmakers had hoped that the public setback would help them relaunch the tense negotiations on a more comprehensive security bill before the scheduled Christmas and New Year’s break.
Border Security is the most heated topic in the Senate at this time. Border Security has been the Republicans’ top priority and the Biden administration has been accused of keeping this topic off the table, giving the war in Ukraine and Israel the most attention.
Republicans claim that because border officials are ill-equipped to screen the unprecedented volume of migrants entering the country from the south, there is a security risk. Additionally, they claim that they cannot defend to their voters the sending of billions of dollars to other nations while ignoring the border issue at home.
Senators have reached a consensus thus far regarding increasing the initial threshold for migrants to apply for asylum. However, they have disagreed about limiting humanitarian parole, a program that permits the executive branch to temporarily admit immigrants without Congressional approval.
On Wednesday, Biden met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, and other G7 leaders. According to him, giving up on supporting Ukraine would give Putin more confidence and put NATO allies at risk of further attacks.
There are not so many days left for the Congress meetings this year, both sides have to hurry up their procedures if they wish Congress to acknowledge their proposals.
