Kaine says Republicans to blame for no deal by Christmas on Ukraine

Dec. 21—U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., are not happy about the Senate's failure to pass a supplemental funding package for Ukraine and Israel before Christmas.

Kaine addressed the issue during his virtual media briefing Wednesday, blaming Republicans for the inability of the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate to pass a funding bill before the holidays, as President Joe Biden has demanded.

Manchin, meanwhile, issued a statement Wednesday calling the lack of action by the Senate "an unacceptable disservice" that fails to address both the border crisis and U.S. funding for Israel and Ukraine.

"We are facing a turning point in history — a sold-out southern border that is facing an unprecedented number of migrants flowing through every day and two of our most important allies are fighting for their lives to protect their democracies — and yet, the Senate has decided to pack up and head home," Manchin said. "The decision to leave Washington with our work unfinished is an unacceptable disservice to the constituents we are elected to serve. The reality is that we need major, structural reforms to dramatically limit the number of illegal crossings at our southern border and regain operational control — we can only achieve such reforms with a collective promise to value country over party. This failure is also a disgrace to the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have given their lives to protect their homeland and those who are still fighting against Putin."

However, Manchin said he remains optimistic that a bipartisan deal can still be reached in the new year that provides funding to Ukraine and Israel while also securing the southern border.

Kaine said the failure to reach a deal lays with Republicans.

"I'll be honest as we worked hard on the support for Ukraine package, the president — President Biden — also proposed significant border security investments," Kaine said. "The Republicans said they liked the investments, but they wanted to do more significant work on the border. Out of a sense of urgency, we agreed with them. We wanted to do that. So when we didn't get to the end point last week, we said let's come back this week — the week before Christmas — and we will work on the urgent items of aid to Ukraine and border security. Well what happened was the House went into recess and didn't come back at all this week."

Kaine said most Republicans in the Senate also didn't bother showing up this week.

"When Senate Democrats came back on Monday this week, we were surprised to find that of 49 Senate Republicans — 30 chose not to come back at all. So we only had 19 of the 49 Republicans show up this week in the Senate. And House Republicans chose not to come back at all. So it kind of makes me wonder. They have been talking about the border as an issue they want to urgently address, but they wouldn't even bother coming back even though the Senate was in session. Sixty percent of the Republican caucus wouldn't even show up. So it makes me wonder if they want to solve a problem, or just complain about a problem."

Kaine wants the national security supplemental funding package to include money for Ukraine and Israel and to provide additional funding for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com