Schumer to Push Aid to Ukraine and Israel Without a Border Deal

Steven T. Dennis, Erik Wasson and Zach C. Cohen
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he expects widespread support for a Wednesday vote on a package of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid divorced from US border funding.

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The New York Democrat will move to the military and foreign aid package soon after a broader compromise that links that funding with new border restrictions fails in the Senate amid GOP resistance.

The second bill, a Plan B that Schumer laid out with Democrats and the White House last week, contains no border funds requested by President Joe Biden.

“I think we’ll have overwhelming support for this bill,” Schumer told reporters.

Many Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, this week called for a Ukraine aid bill without a border deal after Speaker Mike Johnson declared the compromise package dead on arrival and with former President Donald Trump ripping it. That’s a reversal from months of demands by Senate Republicans that any security spending bill must address the record surge of migrants at the US border.

The new aid bill has a strong chance of passing the Senate, which could remain in session into the weekend to complete it. But the debate will highlight the divide between the party’s hawks who strongly support Ukraine led by McConnell and a group more allied with Trump.

Senator Mike Lee, a sharp critic of McConnell’s leadership and aid to Ukraine, blasted the Plan B package in a statement posted on X. His opposition could drag out debate on the bill.

“We should keep our promise: No taxpayer dollars for Ukraine before securing our border,” Lee said.

Lee and many other Republicans contended the compromise negotiated by Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma failed to truly secure the border.

The Plan B bill is unlikely to pass in the House.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a top Ukraine supporter, said Wednesday that there’s no way the speaker can put the bill up for a vote. He said the House won’t approve military assistance for Ukraine unless Biden agrees to GOP demands on immigration.

Also, Johnson faces a threat from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to seek his ouster if he puts a Ukraine funding bill on the floor. When asked about her stance on Wednesday, Greene responded that she would talk to speaker before reiterating any threat.

House Democrats can force a bill to the floor via a rarely used parliamentary procedure if enough Republicans who support Ukraine join them.

That process takes time and traditionally majority party members are reluctant to go against the speaker’s wishes, but urgency to act on Ukraine has increased as its supplies have dwindled.

Johnson’s effort to pass an Israel-only aid bill failed Tuesday, with most Democrats holding out for the larger package and the slender Republican majority divided.

(Updates with opposition to the plan starting in the fifth paragraph.)

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