Crunch time for Israel and Ukraine aid as lawmakers return to Congress from recess

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers will revive a debate over approving U.S. aid to Israel and Ukraine when Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess this week, with deep uncertainty underscoring the path forward amid divisions between the two parties. .

Along with a defense policy bill and reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration by the end of the year, Congress must also contend with a two-part deadline for funding the government that could sneak up sooner than expected.

According to the official calendar, the House has only 12 legislative days left this year, during which top lawmakers believe they must break the impasse over foreign aid to maximize their chances of passage.

The objective is complicated by multiple factors. Republicans insist on stricter enforcement of US borders and stricter asylum laws in exchange for any aid to Ukraine. And as the number of civilian deaths in the Middle East rises, there is a new divide among Democrats over whether to condition funding for Israel on its government taking active steps to stop the fighting.

“The blank check method must end” said Senator Bernie SandersI-Vt., leader of the progressive movement.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues on Sunday that he plans to introduce Biden’s “national security supplemental package” as soon as the week of December 4.

“The biggest obstacle to the national security assistance package right now is our Republican colleagues’ insistence on a partisan border policy as a condition for vital aid to Ukraine. “This has injected a decades-old, hyperpartisan issue into overwhelmingly bipartisan priorities,” Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter. “Democrats are willing to work on common-sense solutions to address immigration, but purely partisan, far-right demands like those in HR 2 jeopardize the entire supplemental national security package.”

Biden weighs in on conditional aid to Israel

Meanwhile, Biden is not drawing a hard line.

“It’s a worthwhile idea,” Biden said, referring to the idea of ​​conditions on aid to Israel, while speaking to reporters Friday about a U.S.-brokered deal to free hostages in the war between Israel and Israel. Hamas. “But I don’t think if I had started with that we would have gotten to where we are today.”

Pressed Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, would not say whether the president prefers to impose conditions on aid to Israel. “He will continue to focus on what will generate results,” Sullivan said.

Between the Democratic divide over Israel, the Republican divide over Ukraine funding, and the bleak prospects for an immigration deal that has eluded Congress for decades, it’s a tough conundrum to solve.

Biden “seems to care more about the borders of Ukraine than the borders of the United States,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We want to secure our border, we want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into this country,” Cotton said. “So, in exchange for providing additional funding to Ukraine, we have to make significant and substantial reforms to our border policy, specifically on asylum and parole.”

Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., said on “Fox News Sunday” that the GOP’s stance on Ukraine shows the party “is now prepared, under the leadership of Donald Trump, to return Ukraine to Russia.”

A tight schedule and financing deadlines

Beyond foreign aid, the House has just 20 legislative days between now and the first deadline of Jan. 19 to fund part of the government. Then another four session days before the second deadline, Feb. 2, to fund the remainder and avoid a damaging shutdown.

The pressure is on Chairman Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, to deliver the progress that hardliners demand in partisan appropriations bills.

They unseated their predecessor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for not acting quickly enough and resorting to a short-term bill in late September. For now, they’re willing to give Johnson more time to figure it out, given that he took office just a month ago.

But diehards are not a patient group.

And it will be difficult to pass the remaining appropriations bills. Johnson canceled votes in two of them before the Thanksgiving break, lacking sufficient support as East Coast Republicans opposed the Amtrak cuts and centrists rebelled against anti-abortion language.

Other pending Republican appropriations bills, such as the one funding the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, also contain anti-abortion provisions that make Republicans in swing districts nervous. The bill to fund the Commerce and Justice departments and science policy includes provisions targeting federal law enforcement that have divided Republican lawmakers, along with conservative demands for amendments to defund former President Donald Trump’s prosecutors. .

Some Republicans are backing Johnson to find a way.

“I don’t think most Republicans blame President Johnson for the problems he faces now, the challenges he faces,” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who voted to remove McCarthy as president, said Sunday on CBS. “Face the nation.” “Those were created during the McCarthy period, and President Johnson is doing a good job solving those problems. So no, I don’t think he’s going to face a rebellion.”

Buck said he is in favor of aid to Israel and Ukraine, as long as it is paid for: “We have three weeks of legislative business ahead of us, if not more, and we can do those things and it is very important to do so. “