The roughly $95 billion foreign aid package that passed through the Senate after dispensing with a controversial immigration deal that was attached to it was “all about political camouflage” for the Democrats, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
More than half of the Republicans in the Senate, including Cruz, opposed the bill that would allocate funds to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and other foreign priorities — including humanitarian aid — in an early-morning vote on Tuesday.
“I think the foreign aid bill that was rammed through by Democrats in the Senate, I think it’s going nowhere in the House. They know that,” Cruz said on “Sunday Morning Futures” in an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo.
“The bill was all about political camouflage,” he said, adding that it gives Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his fellow Democrats “the ability to pretend to want to do something on the border, while at the same time doing nothing.”
The national security supplemental legislation was previously coupled with a bipartisan immigration deal, but those provisions ended up being dropped after a group of Republicans and leftist senators blocked the larger bill from advancing.
Cruz argued that Senate Democrats, who narrowly control the chamber, and President Joe Biden “are accomplices in this chaos that is unfolding in our country” after citing issues related to illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
The Senate voted 70-29 to pass the standalone foreign aid bill, which has the backing of the Biden administration, with mostly votes from Democrats but also some from Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
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Cruz released a statement that said he could not “in good conscience” support the legislation because it lacked “real, substantial additions to bolster” security at the U.S.-Mexico border — a view aligning with what House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said.
The GOP-led House passed a more stringent border security bill called H.R. 2 last year, but the Senate refused to take the legislation up for consideration, with Schumer dismissing what he described as “partisan right-wing demands.”
When pressed on H.R. 2 on Sunday, Cruz said, “Senate Democrats want to do nothing to fix the border. They want to do nothing to turn the economy around. They want to do nothing to stop the crime we’re seeing.”