Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) informed his colleagues in a letter Sunday that he will bring legislation to the Senate floor funding the war in Ukraine and providing aid to Israel “as soon as the week of December 4th.”
Schumer warned senators that time is running out for Ukrainian forces, and he identified GOP senators’ demands for immigration policy reforms as “the biggest holdup to the national security assistance package.”
The Democratic leader indicated he’ll give Senate negotiators at least another week to hammer out a compromise on asylum reform and border security funding but signaled they have limited time to reach a deal.
“One of the most important tasks we must finish is taking up and passing a funding bill to ensure we as well as our friends and partners in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region have the necessary military capabilities to confront and deter our adversaries and competitors,” he wrote, also citing the need to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians caught up in the fighting in Gaza.
“These national security priorities are interrelated and demand bipartisan Congressional action,” he wrote.
Schumer noted that negotiations over border security, asylum and other immigration reforms continued over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“We will need bipartisan cooperation and compromise to achieve a reasonable, realistic agreement that both sides can support. I urge you to engage with our Republican colleagues quickly to help push for a bipartisan path forward in the coming weeks,” he wrote.
Schumer informed Senate colleagues there will be an all-senators classified briefing on Ukraine in the next few days and urged them to attend.
“Remember what President Zelenskyy told us in the Old Senate Chamber when he addressed senators in September, ‘If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war.’ Nothing would make autocrats like Putin or Xi happier right now than to see the United States waver in our support for the Ukrainian people and its military,” he wrote, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.