Republicans and Democrats will not negotiate a deal for Ukraine aid and stronger U.S. border policies before Christmas, with the discussions potentially running into January, according to Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
“We’re clearly not going to have text complete this week to be able to have a vote to be able to pull this stuff together. We’ll keep working until we get it done,” Mr. Lankford told reporters on Monday. “We’re all going to be back in January on this, but it’s going to take a while to be able to finish up all the text.” The senator is also not expecting the bipartisan group negotiating the deal to release even a framework of the agreement this week.
“I don’t anticipate a document coming out and saying to everybody, ‘OK, here’s what it is.’ This is going to be a moving target,” he said.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) also confirmed Monday that no Ukraine deal will happen this week. “We’ll work through the [Christmas] break and hopefully have something ready to vote on [in January] … Obviously, we’re not getting this done this week, for sure.”
Senate Republicans insist that these are the bare minimum, while House Republicans are pushing for much stronger border policy.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called ongoing negotiations “among the most difficult things we’ve done in recent memory,” according to AP.
“Everyone knows that something should be done to fix our broken immigration system … But we can’t do so by compromising our values. Finding the middle ground is exceptionally hard,” he said while speaking on the Senate floor this week.
Strengthening the Border
In a Dec. 12 press conference, President Biden said that his team “is working with Senate Democrats and Republicans to try to find a bipartisan compromise both in terms of changes in policy and provide the resources we need to secure the border.”“Compromise is how democracy works. And I am ready and offered compromise already,“ he added. ”Holding Ukraine funding hostage in an attempt to force through an extreme Republican partisan agenda on the border is not how it works.”
Speaking with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 17, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he expects negotiations to “go into the next year” as the two parties are “not anywhere close to a deal.”
He criticized the Biden administration’s border policies for triggering a security crisis for the United States while reiterating the need for effective border security. He said the Biden administration’s policies have made the border “a dangerous place to come to.”
“According to the FBI director, last week, he’s never seen more threats to the homeland than he does today,” Mr. Graham said. “The border has been obliterated since January ‘21 until now. We’ve had 6 million people come to date. There are 3.6 million on schedule to come this year alone.”
“America’s under threat. According to the FBI director since October the 7th, jihadist groups want to attack us because we’re helping Israel. I’ve never been more worried about a 9/11 than I am right now, and our border has been obliterated. And we’re not going to give in on some Band-Aid fix.”
“Rushed and secret negotiations with Democrats who want an open border and who caused the current crisis will not secure the border,“ they wrote. ”The American public deserves an open and transparent process which cannot occur until the House returns the week of January 8, 2024.”
Pushing negotiations into 2024 also presents additional complications as lawmakers will also be discussing passing a new federal budget during this time. If the issue of Ukraine aid bleeds into budget talks, it can make things harder.
Back in September, House Republicans succeeded in getting a $6 billion Ukraine aid package included in the federal budget removed in exchange for passing a bill to avoid a government shutdown in October.
