Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) reiterated after his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this morning that any aid for Ukraine must be coupled with border security. The statement comes even as a bipartisan group in the Senate has struggled to come to a consensus on border security, a reality that is preventing the United States from sending additional aid to Ukraine despite pleas from Zelensky and the White House. After the closed-door meeting with Zelenskyy, Speaker Johnson told reporters House Republicans will not agree to additional aid for Ukraine unless the White House satisfies two conditions: Include major initiatives on border security in the aid package, and provide a detailed certain strategy on how Ukraine can win the war against Russia. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-New York) spoke on the Senate floor about Zelenskyy’s visit with senators and said he called on Speaker Johnson to keep the House in session until border negotiations have been completed. To date, Congress has allocated more than $111 billion to support Ukraine, but lawmakers have so far failed to heed Biden’s request earlier this fall for an additional $61 billion for the year ahead, part of a larger emergency spending request that would also provide security assistance to Israel, Taiwan and the U.S. border. Public support for Ukraine has fallen steadily in recent months, and Republican lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, where the party’s right flank has wielded outsize influence, have expressed a rapidly diminishing appetite for funding Ukraine’s war effort. President Joe Biden signaled last week that he would be willing to accept significant immigration restrictions to get a deal, but negotiations between the two parties have so far failed to produce one, and lawmakers have just a few more days to get it done before their holiday recess — a goal that one of the deal’s top negotiators said they would not meet.
For today, the Senate will vote on final confirmation of the nomination of Harry Coker, Jr. to be National Cyber Director as well as the motion to invoke cloture on Conference report to accompany H.R.2670, the National Defense Authorization Act.
The House is expected to complete work on H.R. 357 – Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act and consider four bills under suspension of the Rules.
