Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) on Wednesday floated the possibility to Senate Republicans of splitting Ukraine funding from border security reforms that are coming under heavy opposition from Senate conservatives. McConnell reportedly acknowledged to Republican senators at a Wednesday afternoon meeting that the politics of U.S. border security have turned out to be a lot more complicated than he and other Senate Republicans anticipated when they insisted months ago on linking Ukraine funding to border security. It represents a marked shift for the top Senate Republican, who has been pushing hard for a bipartisan deal to pass the border legislation and foreign aid bill together through the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House. The shift comes as Donald Trump, who has pushed congressional GOP members to kill the deal, marches quickly to the Republican presidential nomination and as hard-right Senate Republicans have grown increasingly pointed in their criticism of McConnell. The meeting came on the same day that a group of Senate conservatives held a news conference and torched the emerging bipartisan deal to impose tougher asylum and parole laws, complaining that it doesn’t go far enough and taking aim at McConnell for endorsing the negotiations. As discussions continue, it is unlikely any more Ukraine aid gets approved in the near future.
For today, the Senate is expected to vote on confirmation of the nomination of Gretchen S. Lund to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Indiana, confirmation of the nomination of Kirk Edward Sherriff to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of California and a Motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Joshua Paul Kolar to be United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit.
