U.S. Sen. John Tun (R-SD) speaks after a Republican lunch in the Capitol Hill Senate in Washington, DC, November 10, 2020.
Erin Scott Reuters
President Joe Biden’s request for $ 33 billion in aid to Ukraine has struck an early problem on Capitol Hill, where an immigration policy dispute threatens to hamper an otherwise urgent request to help Kyiv against Russia’s invasion.
The administration’s mass petition to Congress, which includes more than $ 20 billion for military equipment such as artillery and armored vehicles, is popular with Democrats and Republicans.
But Republicans are protesting against Democrats’ new efforts to link $ 33 billion to a separate bipartisan compromise that provides $ 10 billion in additional funding for Covid.
Biden made the pairing explicit on Thursday in his official request for Ukrainian aid to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“To avoid unnecessary deaths in the United States and around the world, I urge Congress to include this much-needed, life-saving funding for COVID as part of this additional funding request,” he wrote.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, helped negotiate funding for Covid, but the rest of his party blocked the bill.
As part of the debate over more money for Covid, most Senate Republicans are pushing for a forced vote on the Biden administration’s controversial decision to end pandemic-era policies called Title 42, which allowed border agents to reject migrants at the southern border. .
This is not an attractive option for Democrats and the White House, which has acknowledged that reversing Title 42 is likely to increase illegal border crossings.
Asked to link the two priorities together, Pelosi told reporters on Friday that it was “all about it”.
“I think it’s very important. We have emergencies here. We need to have the money for Covid. And time is of the essence, “she said, referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine. “It’s called legislation, and we’ll have to figure out how to do it.”
Neither side of the political path wants to see a slowdown in support for Ukraine, prompting key Republicans to challenge the Biden administration in its efforts to link the two efforts.
Senate minority aide Whip John Tun, RS.D., told CNBC on Friday morning that the senator would prefer to vote alone for aid to Kyiv.
Senator Schumer’s representatives did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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Despite guerrilla enmity, Washington political strategist Tom Block believes Republicans and Democrats have little appetite for delaying Ukrainian aid.
The bloc told CNBC that it expects Democrats to abandon their attempt to combine aid to Kyiv with coronavirus relief, given that Romney, a key figure in the Covid deal, seems opposed to linking the two legislative efforts.
“As Democrats talk about adding the Covid package to the application for Ukraine, I expect it to fall next week,” Block wrote on Friday morning.
“I think the deal with Ukraine will be approved by the Remembrance Day holiday at the end of May and will pass with a large bipartisan majority,” he added.
Until then, Democrats may try to force the Republican Party into a politically insidious position to vote against a bill designed to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Friday doubled the president’s request to pass the bills together.
“We are working hard on engagement, holding discussions with relevant members, commissions, staff on the urgency of moving both of these demands forward,” Psaki said. “The president, of course, proposed them because it’s his preference for them to move together.”
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