The Archive

THE SENATE

Senate border talks squeeze both parties

Senate Republicans’ demand for border policy changes as part of any Ukraine aid package is showing some early progress, with Democrats now at the negotiating table.

But there are real doubts — including from the negotiating group’s own members — that they can come together on a border and immigration policy, an issue that Congress has consistently failed to address over the last decade.

“It’s not a high likelihood of success,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who’s part of the group, said bluntly. “Obviously we’ve got to move fast, but my hope is we can get there, even if I’m sober about our chances.”

The spotlight will soon shift to Democrats, who vehemently oppose the idea of conditioning Ukraine aid on a GOP-approved border proposal. But Democrats were forced to negotiate after GOP leaders said Ukraine aid won’t pass without addressing the border.

The group — which includes Murphy and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who have a solid track record on bipartisan dealmaking — is eyeing a targeted approach that focuses on areas of agreement.

At the same time, progressives oppose tightening immigration policies without addressing the status of undocumented immigrants. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), for example, told us that protections for DREAMers are “long overdue.”

“Our party doesn’t view the issue of immigration just as a question of what’s happening at the border,” Murphy noted.

Yet this risks turning the ongoing negotiations into a debate over comprehensive immigration reform, which simply cannot pass in this Congress.

Murphy conceded that the border provisions are “going to have to move toward some Republican priorities” — an acknowledgment of Republicans’ leverage here.

Even if the bipartisan Senate group strikes a deal, Murphy will need to sell it to a skeptical crowd. Democrats will have to consider whether it’s an acceptable cost for getting more Ukraine aid.

Democrats know that abandoning Ukraine wouldn’t only be a major embarrassment for President Joe Biden, but also risks U.S. credibility on the world stage. Hence their willingness, even begrudgingly, to engage with Republicans here. Murphy is among those seeking to heighten the urgency over getting a robust Ukraine bill to Biden’s desk.

Many top Republicans agree. But as we’ve noted before, GOP leaders decided they needed to pair Ukraine with border-security provisions in order to sell it to the House — not to mention their own base.

If senators can’t come to an agreement on border policy changes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could try to attach the foreign-aid package — with scaled-back border security measures — to the stopgap funding bill and dare Republicans to reject it.

This would put a lot of pressure on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in particular, given his long-standing support for Ukraine and the growing sentiment that Congress doesn’t have many opportunities left to approve more aid to the embattled country.

For now, Republicans aren’t expressing concerns — at least publicly — that their decision to tie Ukraine aid to border reform could tank both issues. And Tillis told us he doesn’t view the Nov. 17 government funding deadline as the target date for the bipartisan border group.

“The Ukraine language and the other language in the supplemental is so dependent on getting the border provisions right,” Tillis said. “And the border provisions are not anywhere near a consensus right now. It’s unlikely they will be in the next eight days.”

— Andrew Desiderio

Inside Treasury’s latest Ukraine supplemental pitch to Congress

Top Treasury Department officials are stepping up their appeals to Congress for additional Ukraine aid as that nation’s war with Russia enters its 21st month.

As congressional Republicans grow increasingly cool to further Ukraine funding, top Treasury officials including Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo have been briefing lawmakers this week on both the war’s merits and — crucially, for Republicans — relative cost.

The key pitch: The United States isn’t funding Ukraine on its own but rather as part of a strong international coalition.

U.S. economic aid to Ukraine has been crucial to the war effort, to be clear — a total of roughly $23 billion in direct budget support through July 10, which is about a third of Ukraine’s external backing from the international community. And that doesn’t include $43 billion in defense funding from the United States.

But the Biden administration is arguing that European countries have been providing as much support to Ukraine, if not more, relative to their respective governments’ smaller budgets. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been making this argument, too.

We still expect this to be a tough sell for a number of Republicans, particularly in the House. GOP lawmakers’ skepticism about additional Ukraine aid has only gained momentum since the recent election of Speaker Mike Johnson.

News: After Adeyemo briefed members of the House Financial Service Committee Wednesday in a classified setting, Treasury disseminated a “sensitive but unclassified” slideshow deck to lawmakers that outlines in some detail where the funds have gone and how they compare to contributions from European Union nations and beyond.

We obtained that document, and you can read it here.

The deck covers the war’s start in February 2022 and runs through early July 2023. It’s worth noting at the onset that Treasury says the figures are “subject to uncertainty given limited availability of information.”

According to the document, America’s allies have nearly matched U.S. security expenses for Ukraine at $37 billion. The deck also notes that “some” defense spending from U.S. allies isn’t public, “so estimates may significantly undercount allied contributions” to Ukraine.

The EU has provided more direct budget support to Ukraine than Congress for a total of $22.4 billion, with another $10 billion pledged in the months and years ahead.

The United States also trails its allies in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, according to the document. America’s $1.7 billion support figure is less than half of the more than $4 billion provided by the European Union, Japan, United Kingdom and others.

These presentations to lawmakers are just one part of the Biden administration’s effort to secure additional Ukrainian funds. Senior officials including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to congressional leadership on Tuesday arguing the White House’s supplemental request “aims to preserve U.S. national security interests at a time of dire global crises.” It also assumes that “three quarters of economic support to Ukraine will come from sources other than the United States” in 2024.

“Our allies and partners are stepping up,” the Cabinet officials noted. “However, financing from others cannot make up for the large gap that would quickly emerge if the United States were to abandon its commitment to Ukraine.”

— Brendan Pedersen

THE CAMPAIGN

Johnson’s money operation: Speaker Mike Johnson’s first D.C. fundraiser will be Nov. 30. Here’s the invite. The hosts are Jeff Miller, a major GOP fundraiser and lobbyist who is close to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Todd Walker of Altria. We first scooped this in our PM edition Wednesday night.

Endorsement news: Elect Democratic Women is endorsing Ashley Ehasz’s bid against endangered Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. Ehasz — who’s never held elected office — graduated from West Point and served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot.

Fitzpatrick is one of 18 House Republicans representing districts won by President Joe Biden in 2020. But despite facing political headwinds, Fitzpatrick has developed a unique brand in his Bucks County-area seat and has proven difficult to beat.

“We are confident that Ashley will be a fierce advocate for policies that uplift women and families in Congress,” Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), the chair of Elect Democratic Women, said in a statement.

Abortion rights: Here’s a fact sheet compiled by the DSCC in the aftermath of big wins for Democrats on Tuesday. The document runs through the abortion rights stances of Republican Senate candidates in key battleground states.

“As the 2023 elections showed, the Republican agenda of taking away women’s freedom to make their own medical decisions remains toxic with voters,” the memo reads.

It’s the latest sign that Democrats are planning on centering abortion rights in 2024, following a playbook that proved successful in 2022.

— Max Cohen and Jake Sherman

THE NEW POWER PLAYERS

Punchbowl News hosted The New Power Players Wednesday night, an evening of cocktails and conversation featuring a fireside chat with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). Britt spoke to Punchbowl News Founder and CEO Anna Palmer about her journey to the Senate, her work in the education space and the release of her new book “God Calls Us to Do Hard Things.” Arnold Ventures President and CEO Kelli Rhee and Arnold Ventures Vice President of Higher Education Kelly McManus opened the event with welcome remarks. The event was in partnership with The Network and Arnold Ventures.

Raising a glass: Matt Mazonkey of Airbus; Tom Manatos and Bijan Mehryar of Block; Michael Steel of The Business Roundtable; Mary Kathryn Steel of Bristol Myers Squibb; Reema Dodin of Sen. Brian Schatz’s (D-Hawaii) office; Scott Sloofman of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office; Nick Pearson of Google; Jane Adams of Johnson & Johnson; Keenan Austin Reed of the Alpine Group; Elizabeth Mount, Jake Vreeburg and Brian Cress of the House Republican Conference; and Holly Harris, Carrie Glenn and Cortland Broyles of The Network.

MOMENTS

All times Eastern

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.

9:45 a.m.: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will hold a press conference

10:10 a.m.: Biden will depart the White House for Joint Base Andrews.

10:30 a.m.: Biden will depart Andrews en route to Rockford, Ill. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton will gaggle aboard Air Force One.

12:25 p.m.: Biden will arrive in Rockford, Ill.

1:45 p.m.: Biden will deliver remarks in Belvidere, Ill. on the United Auto Workers Union’s agreement and “highlighting his commitment to delivering for working families and creating good-paying union jobs.”

3:55 p.m.: Biden will depart Rockford en route to Chicago, arriving at Chicago Midway International Airport at 4:55 p.m.

6 p.m.: Biden will participate in a campaign reception.

7:15 p.m.: Biden will depart Midway Airport for O’Hare International Airport, where he will then fly to Andrews. Biden will land at 9:15 p.m. and he will arrive at the White House at 9:25 p.m.

CLIP FILE

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