(USNewsMag.com) – As the Senate prepares a rumored bipartisan deal tying together aid for foreign nations in the middle of conflicts with policy regarding the southern border, which is undergoing its own conflict, Speaker of the House Mike Jonson told the House Republican conference that he believes the deal will end up “dead on arrival” in the lower congressional chamber.
On Friday, Jan. 26, Johnson sent a letter to his colleagues in the House to update them on the supplemental package and the border. Negotiations amongst the Senate have been underway for weeks in order to arrive at a bipartisan compromise on a spending bill that would provide more funding to Ukraine and Israel, as well as to Taiwan, and address the immigration crisis on the US-Mexico border in the same package.
Johnson wrote that the Senate “appears unable to reach any agreement,” but that if the rumors of the draft proposal’s contents are true, he thinks “it would have been dead on arrival” anyway. He and other GOP members have already warned that some rumors circulating about what’s in the bill do not sit well with them. Johnson emphasized again that he and the GOP conference “will vigorously oppose” any proposed policy changes that will “further incentivize” illegal immigration.
According to the key negotiators of the proposal, Sens. Krysten Sinema, Chris Murphy, and James Lankford, the bill should be ready for release sometime early next week.
Former President Donald Trump has taken an all-or-nothing stance on the package, urging lawmakers not to compromise on it and to reject any proposal that is less than perfect regarding border security. Critics have called this strategy impractical, as bipartisan support will be necessary to get anything through, but Trump doesn’t believe the package will go far enough.
Meanwhile, the federal government is also at war with Texas over control of their portion of the border. The US Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of an appeal allowing Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire installed along the border in Texas. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott openly opposed the ruling, with Trump and 25 other GOP governors rallying to his side.
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