Billions in US aid for Israel, Ukraine held up in Senate as border talks lag

Republicans and Democrats work to meet GOP’s conditions for backing passage of $110 billion package, including $14.3 billion for Israel; negotiations expected to drag into 2024

The Capitol is seen under a winter sky in Washington, December 18, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Capitol is seen under a winter sky in Washington, December 18, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

US President Joe Biden’s push to have Congress replenish wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine as part of a deal on border and immigration policy changes will almost certainly drag into next year.

The Senate, which had postponed its holiday recess, returned to Washington on Monday after negotiators worked through the weekend on the border legislation, trying to reach an agreement that could unlock the Republican votes for Biden’s $110 billion package of aid for Kyiv primarily, but with earmarks for Israel and other security priorities as well.

But senators said they still had plenty of work ahead, and it remained uncertain how many more days the Senate will remain in session this week. Barely half of the senators returned for a Monday evening vote.

“Obviously we need time,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democratic negotiator.

The delay heaps more uncertainty on the future of the Biden administration’s priorities of providing support for its allies in Europe and the Middle East.

On a visit to Israel, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed Monday to keep arming its ally, which Washington has already provided with billions of dollars in military aid.

US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin (left) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meet in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

“We’ll continue to provide Israel with the equipment that you need to defend your country… including critical munitions, tactical vehicles, and air defense systems,” Austin said.

Some Democratic lawmakers have spoken of making the proposed $14.3 billion in American assistance to its Mideast ally contingent on concrete steps by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza during the war with Hamas, though the Biden administration opposes attaching strings to the aid.

The postponement also puts a potential pause on politically fraught negotiations over immigration and border security policy, though Senate negotiators planned to continue working on the package.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the negotiations were “among the most difficult things we’ve done in recent memory.”

“Everyone knows that something should be done to fix our broken immigration system,” he said in a Senate floor speech to start the week. “But we can’t do so by compromising our values. Finding the middle ground is exceptionally hard.”

The House has already departed for the year as Congress settles into a long winter’s break. Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return until the second week of January, and they will then need to tend to other matters besides the funding for allies, including facing a partial shutdown in mid-January if Congress can’t pass a government funding package.

But as the Senate undertook the first substantial rewrite of immigration and border security law in decades, Republicans insisted they would not agree to rush legislation.

“Getting this agreement right and producing legislative text is going to require some time,” Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, A New York Democrat, arrives at Capitol Hill, Washington, December 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Schumer had scheduled additional work days this week in hopes of pushing the  aid through the chamber but made no mention of a vote on the package on Monday. He said both Republicans and Democrats would need to make more concessions and it would take “some more time to get it done.”

Members of the core Senate negotiating group — Murphy and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent, and James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican — met with White House staff on Monday and planned to continue meeting throughout the week.

“We’re all going to be back in January, but it’s going to take a while to be able to finish up all the text,” Lankford said.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million, underlining concerns over the gridlock on Capitol Hill.

War in Israel erupted after 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and seizing some 240 hostages. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 360 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.

View of the destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, seen on October 15, 2023. (Edi Israel/Flash90)

The delay came as the Defense Department says it has nearly run out of available funds for supporting Ukraine’s defense. In a letter to Congress, the Pentagon notified lawmakers last week that will soon be transferring more than $1 billion to replenish stockpiles sent to Ukraine, with no further funds available as it maintains the United States’ own military readiness.

“Once these funds are obligated, the Department will have exhausted the funding available to us for security assistance to Ukraine,” according to the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The department said “it is essential that Congress act without delay” on the pending supplemental request.

Dozens of Republican House members have signaled they won’t support continued Ukraine aid, and even GOP senators who in the past have been stalwart advocates of the Ukraine war effort have insisted that Congress also pass new border restrictions.

Biden has offered to compromise on border and immigration policy, and top White House officials have joined the Senate negotiations, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Negotiators have closed in on a list of immigration enforcement measures, including detaining people who claim asylum at the border and granting nationwide authority to quickly remove migrants who have been in the US for less than two years. They have also agreed on raising the initial threshold for people to enter an asylum claim in credible fear screenings.

The White House has tried to preserve an immigration program known as humanitarian parole. The Biden administration has leaned heavily on the use of humanitarian parole as part of its policy of providing legal pathways for some migrants to enter the country while beefing up consequences for those who don’t use those pathways. But Republicans have objected — and even sued to stop it — saying that the administration is essentially bypassing Congress and improperly letting migrants into the country who normally wouldn’t qualify.

Still, Biden’s willingness to make concessions in the negotiations has alarmed immigration advocates and drawn criticism from influential Hispanic Democrats.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat (left) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Independent, arrive for closed-door negotiations on a border security deal at the Capitol, December 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

On a conference call with reporters Monday, advocates decried the policies under consideration as a return to the strategies pursued by Trump that left large numbers of migrants waiting in Mexico to apply for asylum in the US.

“If you have asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico, it’s going to be extremely dangerous,” said Kerri Talbot, executive director of The Immigration Hub.

The senators have also described their work as a complex undertaking as they delve into laws that for years have been at the center of intense legal and political fights.

“As we get into the text, it’s really hard,” said Murphy, but he added, “I think as Ukraine’s peril becomes more serious and more immediate, the urgency to get this done will rise.”

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