With House Republicans bitterly divided over Ukraine funding and other priorities, a mostly unified Senate wants to force the House into accepting the Senate’s position on government funding.
to the expected stopgap funding bill developed to keep the government open. He used his daily floor speeches this past week to voice support for shoring up Ukrainian defenses, to the tune of $24 billion of the emergency request.
The remaining funds would help natural disaster recovery and a few other urgent matters. He has jabbed at the House GOP’s far-right flank that has joined former president Donald Trump in considering Ukraine as not worth so much money to fight against Russia’s invasion.“Critics of this investment cannot ignore its returns: American industry and workers are stronger for it. Our warfighters are stronger for it. And our nation is stronger for it,” McConnell said Thursday. This standoff will play out in at least three steps over the next three months: First, the Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap bill to keep federal agencies running; next, using that extra time to approve detailed agency budgets; and then hammering out differences between the House and Senate’s Pentagon policy bills. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham , a traditional GOP security hawk, sides with those who want to use the stopgap bill as a vehicle to attach the $40 billion emergency funding request, known as a supplemental. And then, by year’s end, Graham would put together a second supplemental request for Ukraine and any other natural disasters. He wants that funding measure to include additional billions of dollars to help other Pentagon accounts because he does not think the McCarthy deal provided enough money.“Our military’s been hurt by inflation. So a supplemental should have money for our military, it should have money for disasters, it should have money to help Ukraine. It should have many moving parts,” Graham said Wednesday. In overwhelmingly bipartisan votes, the Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to an additional $14 billion of “emergency” funding, more than half for the Pentagon, to go above the spending ceilings set by the Biden-McCarthy deal. That money is separate from Biden’s $40 billion supplemental request last month.All this additional money, with big Senate support, essentially would wipe out the “savings” that McCarthy touted after cinching the deal with Biden. He sold that as a conservative package that reduced spending from 2023 to 2024,McCarthy initially suggested the $24 billion request for Ukraine should be considered inside the annual funding request for the Defense Department, not in a separate emergency account. Senators believe their unity, along with the required signature from a Democratic president, gives them all the leverage in negotiations with House counterparts. “When the Senate’s divided,” Van Hollen said, “it doesn’t have the ability to just send something over to the House and say ‘This is going to have to be the final product.’”With his hard-right faction issuing various threats, McCarthy has repeatedly ordered his committee chairs to write up very conservative bills — almost all of which are funded well below the Biden-McCarthy targets from the spring debt deal. That has left House Democrats opposed to the GOP bills, which can pass only by the narrowest of margins without Democratic support.In July, for example, McCarthy let conservatives pile a bunch of legislative riders related to abortion and other culture war issues onto the Pentagon policy bill. The traditionally bipartisan bill
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Deal with reality’: DA accuses House Republican of trying to interfere in Georgia election case“There is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a letter sent to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Thursday.
Read more »
Gloria Johnson, a Member of the “Tennessee Three,” Announces U.S. Senate Run Against Republican Marsha BlackburnA Democrat hasn't won a U.S. Senate race in Tennessee since 1990.
Read more »
U.S. defense officials say Senate Republican Tuberville is jeopardizing national security with promotions ployFirst-term senator from Alabama singlehandedly preventing hundreds of military promotions in protest against Pentagon’s abortion-travel policy.
Read more »
Nikki Haley's 2024 White House bid charts hazardous path in isolationist Republican PartyU.S. 2024 Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley wants to send special forces to Mexico to wipe out drug cartels, double down on sending weapons to Ukraine and make sure China understands 'there will be hell to pay' if it attacks Taiwan.
Read more »
Nikki Haley's 2024 White House bid charts hazardous path in isolationist Republican PartyU.S. 2024 Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley wants to send special forces to Mexico to wipe out drug cartels, double down on sending wea...
Read more »
Trump picks up another big name endorsement over Republican challengers in 2024 White House bidRepublican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has endorsed former President Donald Trump in his bid to retake the White House in the 2024 presidential election.
Read more »