Speaker Johnson Declares Senate Border Bill ‘Dead On Arrival’
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent an uncompromising letter to his caucus on Friday.
In it, he stated that if reports on the legislation pending in the Senate are accurate, the bill addressing the border and aid to Ukraine will be “dead upon arrival” in the House.
House conservatives' opposition to the bill, combined with former President Donald Trump's stance, indicates that the supplemental package lacks the support needed to be passed into law.
“I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border, since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement. If rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway,” Johnson wrote his colleagues.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans continue to work to get funding for Ukraine across the finish line, according to The Hill:
The Ukraine support, which has its own critics in the GOP, was coupled with border talks as a means of securing its passage. But the coupling has actually made it more difficult for the Ukraine support to move forward, due to seemingly intractable policy and political concerns related to the border talks.
Former President Trump's wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary and his opposition to the border deal is a big part of the problem: Trump sees the package as not going far enough. He's also said to want to use the border issue against President Biden in November.
Johnson's message about the bill being “dead on arrival” in the House was also reiterated to Republican chiefs of staff Thursday by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's (R-La.) chief of staff.
In his letter, the Speaker turned to the next major action coming from House Republicans that will come in retaliation of border policies: impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who Johnson charged has “wilfully ignored and actively undermined our nation's immigration laws.” A markup of impeachment articles against Mayorkas in the House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled for Tuesday.
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