Pressure grows on Biden to override Senate Democrats on border

Senate Republicans are warning the only way President Biden will get another $61 billion for Ukraine is if he overrides Senate Democrats and agrees to border security reforms that substantially reduce the influx of migrants into the country. 

They complain the White House has refused to engage in a meaningful way with the lead Senate Republican negotiator, Sen. James Lankford (Okla.). 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said negotiations on border security have stalled because “it’s been difficult to get the kind of support out of the administration itself” needed to get a deal. 

McConnell on Tuesday revealed he told Biden directly that “the only way we’ll get an agreement is for you to be involved, don’t just punt the ball up to Senate Democrats — they may never get there.”  

“We all know he’s the only one that can sign a bill into law,” McConnell said of Biden. “Without him, there is no deal.”  

The Senate GOP leader said he thinks Biden and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients are getting the message.  

“I’ve talked to [Biden] about it. I’ve talked to Zients about it,” McConnell said, adding there was “some indication” from the White House this week that “maybe they’re going to finally engage rather than just sending James Lankford and his team back to Senate Democrats.”  

But McConnell told GOP senators at a Tuesday lunch meeting he thinks it’s too late to get a border security deal in time to pass more funding for Ukraine before January. 

“He just said it’s not going to get done this year; we’re going to have to revisit it next calendar year,” said a Republican senator who attended the meeting.  

A senior Senate Democratic aide argued the White House has been involved in the negotiations and blamed Republicans for repeatedly returning to their initial demand of attaching key elements of the House-passed Secure the Border Act to Ukraine funding. Senate Democrats have repeatedly said the strict Trump-era border policies in that bill are a “non-starter.” 

The long-running Senate negotiations over border security got ratcheted up to a higher level Tuesday afternoon when McConnell’s and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) staffs joined Lankford and Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the lead Democratic negotiator, in the Capitol for a discussion with senior White House staff and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.  

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who has good relationships with senators in both parties, also attended the meeting.  

A Democratic aide said it was the first time McConnell’s and Schumer’s staffs were in the same room with the lead negotiators to hash out an agreement.  

Schumer also hailed the participation of McConnell staff as a key development.  

“We’re still trying. We’re trying very, very hard to get this done,” he said.  

The meeting came a few hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a personal appeal for more military aid during a meeting with senators in the wood-paneled Mansfield Room just off the Senate floor.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a prominent Republican defense hawk, told Zelensky pointedly that he was not going to get more money unless Democrats agree to reform asylum policy to reduce the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. through the Mexico border.  

“I told President Zelensky my No. 1 obligation is to secure my country as well as help yours, and I feel like my country’s border policies are an immediate threat to the safety of the American people,” Graham recounted after the meeting. “There will be no [foreign aid] supplemental without border security reforms that address the problem.”  

Graham said he’s lost faith in Murphy’s ability to cut a deal with Lankford and called on Biden to get more involved in the talks.  

“The key is to get the commander in chief involved in the negotiations. Sen. Murphy — I have no confidence he’s ever going to get a deal we can live with because he’s worried about selling it to the left,” Graham said. “The commander in chief — if there’s a deal to be made — is going to have to get involved in the negotiations. It’s his job above all others.” 

A Senate Republican who requested anonymity to comment on the lack of progress in the talks said “everybody knows that Chris is not the right player on the field now,” referring to Murphy. 

“There’s a growing sense that you’ve got to get somebody else in the room,” the senator said.  

The sentiment was similar on the House side of the Capitol.

“But we certainly demand that the president does get involved. It’s ultimately, the buck stops at his desk, and this is far, far overdue,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday morning.

The prospect of Biden getting more involved in the talks has alarmed some immigration advocates.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-Calif.) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement Monday they are “deeply concerned that the president would consider advancing Trump-era immigration policies that Democrats fought so hard against.” 

But some Democratic senators who view funding the war in Ukraine as a major national security priority would welcome Biden taking a more active role.  

“We’re going to run out of time. This is a negotiation that we need the president, Sen. McConnell, Sen. Schumer — and the Speaker of the House, for that matter — to be involved in,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). 

Bennet said Biden needs to have “clear representation, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour” in the negotiation.  

“They need to be part of this; they needed to be part of this last week,” Bennet said.  

Senate Republicans now say it’s highly unlikely Congress will pass more funding for Ukraine before the end of the year as House Republicans plan to adjourn for the year at the end of this week, once they pass the annual defense policy bill.  

Schumer spoke with Johnson this week to urge him to keep the House in session for another week to give Senate negotiators more time to reach a deal.  

“I told him this because over the past 24 hours, I’ve been alarmed to see some of the same Republicans who demand action at the border because it’s an emergency say that we should leave and come back three weeks from now, suggesting there’s no urgency to act before Christmas,” he said.  

Johnson, for his part, said the Senate has yet to send him a proposal, and he’s “not going to have everybody sit here through Christmas twiddling their thumbs.”

McConnell, one of the Senate’s most outspoken advocates for funding Ukraine’s war against Russia, told reporters Tuesday it now looks unlikely that any foreign aid package will pass this year.  

McConnell observed it’s “practically impossible, even though we reach an agreement, to craft it, get it through the Senate, get it through the House before Christmas.” 

The Senate GOP leader pointed out “the Speaker has said to a number of people” that the House is leaving town “at the end of the week,” which means there’s little prospect of sending an aid package to Biden’s desk before the new year even if Senate negotiators reach a deal on border security within the next week.