A pair of Republican lawmakers are calling on their colleagues in the House and Senate to advance a financial aid bill to Israel as negotiations in the upper chamber have stalled action on that front over the last several weeks.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) released a joint statement on Wednesday urging lawmakers to pass a clean, “un-offset” aid bill to Israel as it continues its war against the Hamas militant group. The calls come as negotiations for a package deal have largely stalled in the Senate due to separate policy disagreements over the southern border.
“For months, Senate leadership has attempted to trade Ukraine aid for a bill that would secure America’s border,” the pair said. “If news reports are in any way accurate, that border negotiation is a complete policy failure. It’s time to address the issues that unite Republicans, not divide them. We commend the Speaker for standing firm against this bad border deal, and urge him to put a clean, un-offset Israel bill on the floor of the House immediately. Let’s put an end to House and Senate Democrats’ political games on Israel.”
Negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats have been happening for months to implement substantial border policy changes in exchange for increased military aid to Ukraine and Israel. However, those talks have been hit with snags in recent weeks, especially after former President Donald Trump came out in opposition to the deal and called on his allies on the Hill to do the same.
Still, even if the Senate can agree on a border deal, its future in the House is unclear. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already indicated the compromise agreement would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber — dooming its chances of passage before the text is even finalized.
As a result, some Republicans in the House and Senate are turning the tables on President Joe Biden, claiming he could use his executive power to address the surge in immigration without legislation.
“The border crisis … could be solved tomorrow by Joe Biden and the Democrats. They do not want a solution,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said. “And so, I don’t believe Democrats are negotiating in good faith. Nobody knows exactly what’s in this deal because they won’t release text. But there’s a reason for that. The reason you don’t release text is when the substance is so bad that the American people would hate it if they knew what was in it.”
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Democrats are already throwing attacks at Republicans, claiming the GOP is refusing to act on the border to boost Trump’s reelection prospects by preserving the border crisis as a key campaign point.
“From the beginning, we’ve always known there would be a group of Republicans, including Donald Trump, that didn’t want to fix the border,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the lead negotiators of the Senate border deal. “A lot of Republicans have become used to this being just merely a political issue, not an actual policy problem. And that’s hard for them to get over.”