WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s\u00a0push to have Congress replenish wartime aid for Ukraine as part of a deal on border and immigration policy changes will almost certainly drag into next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate, which had postponed its holiday recess, returned to Washington on Monday after\u00a0negotiators worked through the weekend\u00a0on the border legislation, trying to reach an agreement that could unlock the Republican votes for\u00a0Biden\u2019s $110 billion package of aid\u00a0for Ukraine, Israel and other security priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But senators said they still had plenty of work ahead, and it remained uncertain how many more days the Senate will remain in session this week. Barely half of the senators returned for a Monday evening vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously we need time,\u201d said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democratic negotiator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The delay heaps more uncertainty on the future of the Biden administration\u2019s priority of\u00a0providing support against Russia\u2019s invasion. It also puts a potential pause on politically fraught negotiations over immigration and border security policy, though Senate negotiators planned to continue working on the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the negotiations were \u201camong the most difficult things we\u2019ve done in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone knows that something should be done to fix our broken immigration system,\u201d he said in a Senate floor speech to start the week. \u201cBut we can\u2019t do so by compromising our values. Finding the middle ground is exceptionally hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House has already departed for the year as Congress settles into a long winter\u2019s break. Lawmakers aren\u2019t scheduled to return until the second week of January, and they will then need to tend to other matters besides the Ukraine funding, including facing a partial shutdown in mid-January if Congress can\u2019t pass a government funding package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The delay heaps more uncertainty on the future of the Biden administration\u2019s priority of\u00a0providing support against Russia\u2019s invasion. It also puts a potential pause on politically fraught negotiations over immigration and border security policy, though Senate negotiators planned to continue working on the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the negotiations were \u201camong the most difficult things we\u2019ve done in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone knows that something should be done to fix our broken immigration system,\u201d he said in a Senate floor speech to start the week. \u201cBut we can\u2019t do so by compromising our values. Finding the middle ground is exceptionally hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House has already departed for the year as Congress settles into a long winter\u2019s break. Lawmakers aren\u2019t scheduled to return until the second week of January, and they will then need to tend to other matters besides the Ukraine funding, including facing a partial shutdown in mid-January if Congress can\u2019t pass a government funding package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as the Senate undertook the first substantial rewrite of immigration and border security law in decades, Republicans insisted they would not agree to rushing legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGetting this agreement right and producing legislative text is going to require some time,\u201d Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schumer had scheduled additional work days this week in hopes of pushing the Ukraine aid through the chamber, but made no mention of a vote on the package on Monday. He said both Republicans and Democrats would need to make more concessions and it would take \u201csome more time to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the core Senate negotiating group \u2014 Murphy and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent, and James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican \u2014 met with White House staff on Monday and planned to continue meeting throughout the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all going to be back in January, but it\u2019s going to take a while to be able to finish up all the text,\u201d Lankford said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weeks-long wait comes as the Defense Department says it has nearly run out of available funds for supporting Ukraine\u2019s defense. In a letter to Congress, the Pentagon notified lawmakers last week that will soon be transferring more than $1 billion to replenish stockpiles sent to Ukraine, with no further funds available as it maintains the United States\u2019 own military readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce these funds are obligated, the Department will have exhausted the funding available to us for security assistance to Ukraine,\u201d according to the letter obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department said \u201cit is essential that Congress act without delay\u201d on the pending supplemental request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian forces tried to launch a counteroffensive this year, but faced dug-in Russian troops, minefields and other hazards. They struggled to make any significant gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the conflict grinds towards the end of a second year, U.S. public support has waned for sending billions of dollars more in weapons and economic aid. The European Union, too, had to\u00a0push into the new year\u00a0a plan to supply Ukraine with $54.5 billion after a veto from Hungarian Prime Minister\u00a0Viktor Orban, a right-wing leader who is on good terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Donald Trump, the former president and front-runner for the Republican nomination next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As his country scrapes low on money to repel Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has traveled the world to ask for support. He elicited praise from Republicans after\u00a0meeting with them in the Capitol\u00a0last week, but the conservatives remained unmoved and in no hurry to approve Biden\u2019s emergency funding request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans have said there is still time to redouble support before Ukraine\u2019s defense suffers. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that since the European Union put off sending Kyiv more money until the new year, he thinks the U.S. can as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s OK for them, it\u2019s surely OK for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dozens of Republican House members have signaled they won\u2019t support continued Ukraine aid, and even GOP senators who in the past have been stalwart advocates of the Ukraine war effort have insisted that Congress also pass new border restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden has offered to compromise on border and immigration policy, and\u00a0top White House officials have joined\u00a0the Senate negotiations, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Negotiators have closed in on a list\u00a0of immigration enforcement measures, including detaining people who claim asylum at the border and granting nationwide authority to quickly remove migrants who have been in the U.S. for less than two years. They have also agreed on raising the initial threshold for people to enter an asylum claim in credible fear screenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House has tried to preserve an immigration program known as humanitarian parole. The Biden administration has leaned heavily on the use of humanitarian parole as part of its policy of providing legal pathways for some migrants to enter the country while beefing up consequences for those who don\u2019t use those pathways. But Republicans have objected \u2014 and even sued to stop it \u2014 saying that the administration is essentially bypassing Congress and improperly letting migrants into the country who normally wouldn\u2019t qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Biden\u2019s willingness to make concessions in the negotiations has\u00a0alarmed immigration advocates and drawn criticism from influential Hispanic Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a conference call with reporters Monday, advocates decried the policies under consideration as a return to the strategies pursued by Trump that left large numbers of migrants waiting in Mexico to apply for asylum in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you have asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico, it\u2019s going to be extremely dangerous,\u201d said Kerri Talbot, executive director of The Immigration Hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senators have also described their work as a complex undertaking as they delve into laws that for years have been at the center of intense legal and political fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs we get into the text, it\u2019s really hard,\u201d said Murphy, but he added, \u201cI think as Ukraine\u2019s peril becomes more serious and more immediate, the urgency to get this done will rise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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