Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and Speaker of the Dwelling Mike Johnson, R-La., back a Menorah lights to celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, within the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Pictures
Dwelling Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had a bipartisan glow about them Wednesday after they and different congressional leaders met with President Joe Biden, where they mentioned Ukraine back, border security, and substances of a deadlocked funding equipment.
“We had a productive assembly,” Johnson, R-La., told newshounds minutes after the White Dwelling sitdown ended.
“We realize that each these objects are basic, but we need to relate, we need to relate that the border be the head precedence,” the speaker acknowledged. “I deem we now non-public got some consensus around that desk.”
Schumer, D-N.Y., acknowledged the assembly confirmed there was agreement between Democrats and Republicans that extra back for Ukraine and improved U.S. border security are important.
“The supreme technique we will raise out border and Ukraine, and even both of them, is bipartisan,” Schumer acknowledged. “Any birthday celebration that says raise out it my technique or no technique, we’re no longer going to make a selection up one thing else done.”
The assembly, which lasted over an hour, also was attended by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Dwelling Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and a big selection of congressional committee chairmen and rating members.
The collaborative sentiment expressed by Johnson and Schumer can also signal hope for Biden’s supplemental back equipment, which would provide funding to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the U.S. southern border.
McConnell on Wednesday acknowledged a Senate floor vote on the supplemental equipment would possibly possibly perhaps well perhaps be held subsequent week, after a months-long stalemate in Congress.
But the bipartisan message would possibly possibly perhaps well perhaps be a liability for Johnson.
He was no longer too long ago elected speaker with the basic enhance of hardline Dwelling Republicans, who quiz him to bring on their ultraconservative wish checklist.
Johnson’s predecessor, veteran Fetch. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted by that clique after and as a consequence of his cooperation with Democrats to shuffle a momentary spending measure, which done with no federal authorities shutdown.
Fetch. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a conservative, has already warned that a motion moreover Johnson is “on the desk,” after the speaker announced a bipartisan deal to approve a federal price range that would possibly possibly perhaps well perhaps employ as much as nearly $1.6 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Congress is busy this week trying to shuffle one more momentary spending resolution by Friday to forestall a authorities shutdown.
Biden at the muse requested a $105 billion supplemental funding equipment from Congress in October to back Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars, alongside with securing Taiwan’s protection systems and the U.S. southern border.
Within the ensuing months, the bill has remained at a stalemate in Congress even supposing Biden has tried plenty of instances to flip up the tension. Johnson and Biden spoke on the cellphone final week about border security, which has change into a predominant sticking level within the negotiations.
“Congress, develop no longer extend. Circulate my national security supplemental. The time to act is now,” the president wrote in a Wednesday social media post.
Congressional Republicans demanded more funding for the southern border and no more for Ukraine. Democrats non-public stood by the need for sustaining Ukraine back, arguing that a Russian victory would pose broader threats to the voice of world democracy.
Biden has previous up the final of his executive funding bucket for Ukraine. The final security support equipment to Ukraine was licensed on Dec. 27, per National Security Spokesman John Kirby. There’s no longer any more U.S. money left for Ukraine till Congress passes the supplemental equipment.
“There’s no magic pot of money. If we develop no longer make a selection up that money, it is miles a right win 22 situation. It’s miles a right win 22 situation for Ukraine,” Secretary of Teach Antony Blinken acknowledged Tuesday at the World Economic Dialogue board in Davos, Switzerland.
