A Republican senator said on Sunday that negotiators hope to get the text of a border security deal released in the coming week, progress which could pave the way to a new tranche of Ukraine aid.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who has led the talks on the GOP side along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) for the Democrats, provided an update to “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream after a record number of migrant crossings in December.
“We’re hoping to get text by later on this week,” Lankford said, adding later, “Everybody will have time to be able to read it and go through it. No one’s going to be jammed in this process, but it’s a matter of trying to be able to get this out.”
The negotiators have been trying to hash out an agreement on border security reforms, a GOP priority, after Biden pushed Congress for more than $100 billion in supplemental funding for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel as well as money for the border.
Though he did not get into the specifics of a tentative deal, Lankford stressed a “desperate need” for a change in how asylum is handled and said that “we’ve got to end” catch-and-release.
President Joe Biden recently said he is “willing to make significant compromises” to “fix the broken border system.” The House passed border legislation — H.R. 2 — last year, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has refused to have the Senate take up the bill, dismissing what he described as “partisan right-wing demands.”
Lankford acknowledged the political reality of a GOP-led House, which he said has “not been heard” after passing a “very strong” border security bill, contending with Democrat-controlled White House and Senate. He encouraged discussions beyond the negotiations taking place in the upper chamber.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has “got to be able to sit down with the White House and to be able to work out how we’re going to actually be able to get there,” Lankford said. “That’s the same thing we’re doing as the Senate to be able to work through how we’re going to get Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on board, something that actually makes a difference on our border.”
He added, “And then to be able to get it passed in the House. If we can pass this in the days ahead and send it over the House, the House can work to improve it or the House can take a serious look at it and say, ‘This makes real progress on the border. Let’s go get this, bank this, and then keep going for more.'”