U.S. President Joe Biden speaks throughout a gathering with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy within the Oval Office on the White House in Washington, U.S., December 12, 2023.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrapped up a sequence of high-profile meetings in Washington this week with no ensures {that a} congressional aid package for Ukraine can be handed this yr.
But if Congress pushes negotiations into 2024, it could complicate the already fraught technique of passing a brand new federal budget, which lawmakers could have to confront within the coming months.
The short-term spending invoice presently protecting government businesses open is due to expire Jan. 19 for some departments and Feb. 2 for others.
Throughout Zelenskyy’s go to, Republican hardliners in Congress expressed sympathy for Ukraine’s practically two-year campaign towards an unprovoked Russian invasion.
But they’d not agree to vote for President Joe Biden’s $110 billion emergency aid invoice with out securing a parallel settlement to implement harder border safety measures and stricter immigration insurance policies.
“I acknowledge your management, your nation’s braveness, and I need to proceed to allow you to,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, recalled telling Zelenskyy on the all-senators assembly on Tuesday. “But we’re not going to have the option to do this till we higher safe our personal border as a result of I’m anxious a few 9/11.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, advised reporters on Tuesday that he requested Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to maintain the House in session subsequent week to get the deal accomplished.
Democrats are keen to lower into the vacation recess to get a package deal handed, in accordance to a Democratic aide conversant in the matter.
“I might keep right here indefinitely, however I do not know that each one our colleagues can be ready to do this,” Speaker Johnson mentioned at a Wall Street Journal convention on Monday.
Top Senate Republicans are more and more skeptical {that a} deal can get accomplished earlier than the yr’s finish.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., mentioned Tuesday that will probably be “virtually inconceivable” to cross the supplemental aid within the subsequent two weeks.
Punting the negotiations won’t make them any simpler, nonetheless. On the opposite, they may solely turn into tougher to finalize if they begin to bleed into price range talks.
That’s what occurred final September. A small however vocal group of hardline House Republicans practically shut down the government over their opposition to $6 billion of Ukraine aid included within the federal price range.
Hours earlier than a government shutdown deadline of Oct. 1, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to strip out the Ukraine aid to cross a invoice to maintain the government open. Days later, McCarthy grew to become the primary speaker to be ousted from his place.
If Ukraine funding talks get delayed to 2024 and turn into a pawn within the coming price range negotiations, Speaker Johnson could be prone to assembly the identical destiny McCarthy did.
Johnson already faces an uphill price range battle, with out the added burden of Ukraine aid talks.
“We’ll have loads of necessary fast work to do after we get again after the brand new yr,” he mentioned Monday.