The Senate is wasting its time passing tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid without border security measures, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested in a Monday night statement.
In a statement issued less than an hour before the Senate began a series of procedural votes to waive budgetary points of order and invoke cloture on the bill, Johnson dismissed the efforts, suggesting the House would not bring up the bill.
“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,” Johnson said. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
Additional funding for Ukraine’s stalemate war against Russia has grown increasingly unpopular with the Republican base despite pro-endless funding Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) claiming on the Senate floor Monday, “The vote we will soon take to provide military weapons for Ukraine is the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators.”
Johnson made clear that Congress should make progress in addressing America’s southern border before even considering supplemental foreign aid.
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“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,” Johnson said. “The House acted ten months ago to help enact transformative policy change by passing the Secure Our Border Act, and since then, including today, the Senate has failed to meet the moment.”
The bill Johnson touts, often referred to as “H.R. 2” on Capitol Hill, is the standard demand for border hawks and House Republicans for Congressional action on the border.
Johnson continued attacking the Senate’s continued focus on passing foreign aid while the border crisis continues:
The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel-Immigration legislation due to its insufficient border provisions, and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe.
“Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.”
Johnson’s statement sends a clear message to any on-the-fence Republican senators that a politically perilous vote in favor of the foreign aid package will be for naught. Yet the package appears set for passage.
Regardless, Johnson made clear that the House will continue advocating for H.R. 2 and other border efforts before considering more foreign aid.
“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” Johnson said. “It is what the American people demand and deserve.”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.