House focuses on border security first
White House wants Senate bill for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid passed by lower chamber
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) -The White House insists, this is a moment for leadership, that the House needs to take up the $95 billion foreign aid bill the Senate passed earlier this week before departing on recess.
The Pentagon notes, the US-led coalition has supplied $85 billion in security assistance to Ukraine alone over the past two years, funds that are now running out. Jon Kirby is the spokesman for national security matters for the Biden Administration.
“It really effects Ukrainian soldiers on the ground. It affects our Israeli counterparts who are still coming under rocket attacks by Hamas crane soldiers having to make difficult decisions about how much ammunition they’re going to expend on a given day. And it certainly puts even U.S. Central Command at a disadvantage.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson insists that the American people are telling him security along the U.S. Mexico Border is their top priority and that’s the message he wants to bring to President Biden in person. “I’ve been asking to sit down with the president to talk about the border and talk about National Security and that meeting has not been granted and I’m going to continue to insist on that because they’re very serious issues that need to be addressed and if the speaker of the house can’t meet with the president United States, that’s a problem.”
During a Wednesday press conference, Speaker Johnson added, “Much more has to be done, of course, to secure the border. And what the Senate produced this week is silent on that issue. Senator McConnell and I have spoken about this in frank sessions and let me be clear here again this morning, the Republican led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border.”
The next problem is that both chambers of Congress are about to go on recess, not returning until February 26. That’s when there will be just days to sort out an even bigger problem - funding for the federal government begins to run out March 1.
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