As negotiations continue on new border security restrictions alongside billions more for Ukraine aid this month, Senate Republicans say there’s no chance of a deal before Christmas on funding the war in Ukraine. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) had tentatively scheduled a vote on the package this week, but Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), the lead Republican negotiator, said late Monday that he doesn’t expect White House and Senate negotiators to reach an agreement in the next few days given the unresolved issues still on the table. If the Senate leaves town for the holidays without reaching a deal, the White House will have to make tough choices about supplying allies such as Ukraine at the potential expense of US military readiness. The supplemental request also includes $14 billion for border security. But potential changes to tighten asylum, among other stricter immigration measures, are a hard sell with Democrats, who are concerned the White House is embracing Trump-era immigration policies. Other key sticking points remain as negotiators try to reach an agreement which include metrics to trigger the expulsion of migrants at the US-Mexico border, effectively barring migrants from seeking asylum at the border; curbing the use of parole, which allows migrants to temporarily live in the US on a case-by-case basis; and mandatory detention. Other proposals include raising the credible fear standard for asylum seekers and expanding the use of a fast-track deportation procedure.
Majority Leader Schumer said this morning that negotiations over a Ukraine aid and immigration policy package will still “take more time,” but “we must succeed.” He also pledged not to send the chamber home for the holidays until its final votes of the year are finished, including confirming 11 more Pentagon nominations and working out a short-term FAA reauthorization.
For today, the Senate is working on confirmation of the nominations of Christopher Charles Fonzone to be an Assistant Attorney General, Sara E. Hill to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma and Elizabeth H. Richard, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, to be Coordinator for Counterterrorism, with the rank and status of Ambassador at Large.
