House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on Monday that Congress should address the border crisis as a priority.
The Senate passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan on Tuesday.
The vote came after a small group of Republicans opposed to the $60 billion for Ukraine held the Senate floor through the night, using the final hours of debate to argue that the United States should focus on its own problems before sending more money overseas. But 22 Republicans joined nearly all Democrats to pass the package 70–29.
The bill includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel in its war against Hamas, $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, and $4.83 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s communist regime.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) applauded the bill’s passage and said, “American leadership will not waiver, will not falter, will not fail.”
However, the bill’s fate is still uncertain as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) insisted that Congress prioritize the border crisis.
“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” he said in a statement on Monday before the Senate passed the bill.
“Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
The Hurdles
An initial package with the aid and some border measures failed to advance in the Senate without enough support from the Republican side.
With 50 senators voting against its advancement and 49 voting in the affirmative, it didn’t get the 60 votes needed to begin the debate. Four Republicans—Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and James Lankford (R-Okla.)—voted for the bill.
The Republicans argued that the border measures would not change the situation at the southern border, insisted that addressing the border crisis was more important than giving more money to Ukraine, and complained that President Joe Biden didn’t secure the border even though he had the authority to do it.
By Allen Zhong
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