House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to lawmakers Friday effectively killing hopes of advancing the Ukraine-border security package as negotiated by the Senate.
The letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner Friday morning, claimed that Senate negotiations are stalling and that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”
He reiterated that the White House and Senate negotiators must adopt the “transformative corrections” included in H.R. 2, the immigration bill passed by House Republicans in 2023. The speaker additionally stated his plan to move forward, “by necessity,” with bringing articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas when the House returns from recess next week.
Johnson also said that, in recent calls and meetings with the president, he had “made clear that we stand with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his heroic efforts to protect the citizens of his stand and all Americans, and I am emphasizing again today that House Republicans will vigorously oppose any policy proposal from the White House or Senate that would further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws.”
In recent days, the White House has criticized Johnson and House Republicans for “getting in the way” of negotiations in the Senate.
Johnson, President Joe Biden, and the other “Big Four” congressional leaders met at the White House on Jan. 17, after which the House speaker expressed a greater openness to a linked Ukraine-border package.
However, former President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers have been pressuring Johnson to reject the Senate’s emerging compromise out of hand.
Asked about those reports during Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre told reporters that Johnson and House Republicans must accept bipartisan proposals if they “really want to actually fix this problem.”
“There was an agreement with folks in the room that we needed to deal with both issues,” she stated, referencing Biden’s meeting with congressional leadership. “Both issues are really important, and so that’s what I will leave you with, but House Republicans could speak for themselves, and we are saying to them, ‘Why are they getting in the way? Why don’t they come to the table and actually have these negotiations with us as well?’”
Still, Trump’s attempts to block a border deal ahead of the 2024 election has angered some Republicans on the Hill.
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“I don’t think making the border better changes the 2024 outcome,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch Trump ally. “I think it’s what we’re expected to do.”
“I just reject the idea that we should reserve a crisis for a better time to solve it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) added in a statement. “There a lot of angry people out there, and that’s why the border crisis is the No. 1 issue for voters. I don’t see how we have a better story to tell when we miss the one opportunity we have to fix it and we go to say, you know, I would love to fix it, but it was election season, so I thought I’d wait.”
Johnson Dear Colleague Letter 1/26/24 by Christian Datoc on Scribd