The restoration of US military aid to Ukraine could be delayed indefinitely after Republican leaders in the House of Representatives sharply criticized the compromise reached by their colleagues in the Senate with Democratic lawmakers, ABC News reports.
“I’ve seen enough. The bill is even worse than I expected and won’t come close to stopping this president’s border disaster [Joe Biden] created it. As the chief negotiator of the Democrats proclaimed: under this bill, “the border never closes.” If this bill reaches the House of Representatives, it will be dead on file,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
His comments on the border situation came as the White House asked Congress on October 20 to approve a massive aid package for Ukraine and Israel as part of a bill that also provides funds for US border security.
Of the package, which provides for a total sum of 106 billion dollars, more than 60 billion is intended for Ukraine.
Military aid to Ukraine has been blocked in the US Congress since October
But in the context of Washington politicians entering the election campaign in the presidential and legislative elections that will be held in November this year, the adoption of the package was blocked in Congress, the Republicans are demanding guarantees that would ensure the cessation of the flow of illegal migrants from the southern border of the United States.
On December 27, the White House announced that it had sent Ukraine the last tranche of aid it could approve without congressional approval, with both senior Biden administration officials and the US president repeatedly warning that political gridlock in Congress was jeopardizing efforts to end the war in Ukraine and gives President Vladimir Putin an unexpected advantage.
After months of negotiations, Senate Democratic and Republican leaders announced in early February that they had reached a compromise that satisfied both sides and that it would be released by February 4.
But the deal reached by US senators was denounced by Johnson just hours after its contents were published on Sunday.
The bill was also rejected by Steve Scalise, the leader of a group of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, who said it would not even come up for a vote in the lower house of Congress.
“I want to be as clear as possible: the Senate border bill will NOT receive a vote in the House. Here’s what the people pushing this ‘deal’ aren’t telling you: It admits 5,000 illegal immigrants a day and automatically grants asylum seekers work permits — a magnet for illegal immigration,” he said in a message posted online ” X” socialization.
Republican congressmen in the House of Representatives categorically reject the agreement reached with Democrats by their colleagues in the Senate
Influential Congressman Tom Emmer, D-Minnesota, opposed the compromise reached by his colleagues in the Senate.
“I’ll say it again: Any deal that comes out of the Senate and expressly allows even ONE illegal border crossing will be invalid once it reaches the House. What we saw is an insult to the American people, who were forced to bear the consequences of the Democrats’ open border policy,” he said on “X.”
Similar points of view were expressed by other representatives of Republicans in the Congress, since partial elections to legislative bodies (so-called “midterm” elections) will be held in the USA in November at the same time as the presidential elections.
ABC News notes that with the U.S. election campaign in full swing and ideological divisions deepening, it is unlikely that the more than $100 billion package will be approved by the House of Representatives anytime soon.
So far, neither the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, nor the leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, have commented on the statements of the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
US senators announced a deal to fund Ukraine’s, Israel’s and US borders on the same day the European Union approved its own multi-year aid package worth 50 billion euros for Kyiv, overcoming opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
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Source: Hot News
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