This week: Senate faces decision time on Ukraine aid

Senate Democrats are nearing a decision point on how to handle the administration’s request for tens of billions in new Ukraine assistance. 

The Biden administration formally unveiled the $33 billion ask last week, kicking the issue to Congress, where Democrats will need to decide whether to attach it to stalled coronavirus aid. 

With the House out for the week, the focus will settle on Senate Democrats, where Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) hasn’t yet tipped his hand. 

Both the White House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back linking both the coronavirus aid and the new round of Ukraine-related assistance, arguing that they are both priorities that need to quickly pass Congress. 

“I’m all for that,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I think it’s very important. We have emergencies here. We need to have the COVID money, and time is of the essence because we need the Ukraine money. … So I would hope that we can do that.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also said that it is President Biden’s preference that they move together. 

“The president, of course, put them forward because — together.  And that is his preference: for them to move together, because they are both essential.  There’s urgency to moving them both forward,” she told reporters. 

Schumer sidestepped the question when asked last week if he would tie the two aid requests together. He had previously indicated that he intended to tie Ukraine assistance and $5 billion in global coronavirus relief funds, but that was before the current stalemate. 

“I would urge our Republican colleagues to pass COVID relief,” he said during a press conference last week. 

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) similarly demurred, telling reporters late last week about linking Ukraine to COVID-19: “I would put it in any package that guarantees that it’s going to be successful soon.” 

There’s support within Schumer’s caucus for linking them. In addition to the assistance for Ukraine, Democrats view new funding for coronavirus vaccinations and therapeutics as vital. 

“I think we all think that that increases the chance of success on both,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), while acknowledging that the decision ultimately rests with Schumer. 

But linking Ukraine assistance and coronavirus aid could slow down its path through the Senate. 

Republicans previously blocked a deal on $10 billion in coronavirus relief, which was negotiated between Schumer and a group of GOP senators, after Democrats refused to give them an amendment vote related to Title 42. 

Republicans want a vote on an amendment from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) that would prevent the administration from lifting Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic public health policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and blocks them from seeking asylum.

Republicans believe they would only need a simple majority to get the amendment included in the coronavirus relief bill, meaning they would only need to pick up one Democratic vote. There are currently five Democratic co-sponsors of the bill, though leadership in both parties has estimated that the number of Democratic “yes” votes could climb if the proposal is allowed to come up for a vote. 

Democrats have so far refused to give Republicans a vote related to Title 42, arguing that they shouldn’t hold coronavirus assistance “hostage.” A federal judge also placed a temporary restraining order on the administration from lifting Title 42, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated it would do on May 23. 

The Biden administration has faced fierce backlash from moderates in both chambers over the CDC’s decision to rescind Title 42, with Democrats raising concerns that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doesn’t have an adequate plan. In a bid to assuage Democrats, DHS began releasing more details last week, and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week. 

“You shouldn’t be worried about [Title 42],” Mayorkas said during a “Fox News Sunday” interview. “We’ve got a handle on it.”

But that’s done little to break the Senate GOP’s demand for a Title 42 vote as part of the coronavirus legislation. And Republicans are warning that if Democrats tie Ukraine assistance and COVID-19 aid together, that they will block it. 

“In order to get the 60 votes they need, I think the strategy for the Democrats should be to split them. … If they want to get 10 Republicans, the best way to do that is to separate them,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said about the Ukraine aid.  

Competitiveness bill

The Senate will grind through more than two dozen nonbinding votes to instruct negotiators who will work out a final deal on an anti-China competitiveness bill, after formally voting last week to go to conference. 

As part of the long-sought agreement to formally begin negotiations with the House, the Senate locked in votes on approximately 28 motions to instruct negotiators, which are nonbinding but could provide political fodder. Aides didn’t rule out that some of the motions could clear by voice vote or be dropped altogether. 

Republicans, for example, want to have two votes related to Iran, including an effort by Lankford to require that any nuclear deal with Iran would have to also address Tehran’s other “destabilizing activities.” 

Though Republicans aren’t expected to be able to block a new deal in Congress, if one is reached, they are vowing to go all-in to fight it and are laying down early markers that they could try to rip it up once their party wins back the White House. Republicans also want to use the nonbinding votes to target contributions to a “Green Climate Fund.” 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among the members of the Senate Democratic Conference that will get votes as part of a deal struck earlier this year with Schumer. One proposal would try to get conference committee negotiators to put requirements in place for microchip companies that take taxpayer assistance, while the second would try to get conference committee negotiators to strike $10 billion for NASA’s lunar landing program, which has been seen as favoring Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. 

“If Mr. Bezos wants to go to the moon, let him use his own money,” Sanders said during a floor speech earlier this year, “not the taxpayers.” 

Nominations

Schumer has teed up votes on two nominees: Elizabeth de Leon Bhargava to be an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Joshua Frost to be an assistant secretary of the Treasury. 

The Senate will take an initial procedural vote on Frost’s nomination on Monday night. 

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) announced on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, depriving Democrats of a vote. But the nominees could still be confirmed if they pick up GOP support. 

“I am vaccinated and boosted and thankfully experiencing only minor, cold-like symptoms,” Bennet said in a statement. “I will work virtually while quarantining in Denver according to the guidance set forth by the Senate Attending Physician.”