The Senate on Wednesday will hold a separate vote on a more than $110 billion national security package with aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but only if the same legislation paired with a bipartisan border security deal fails.
A senior Senate Democratic aide said the contingency plan is meant to show Republicans’ hand on the foreign aid once they block the border provisions, which they’ve soured on because of its amnesty components.
Top Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, say reverting to square one and voting on only the foreign aid is the most viable path for money to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and Gaza.
“There are other parts of this supplemental that are extremely important as well,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said Tuesday. “We still, in my view, ought to tackle the rest of it because it’s important — not that the border isn’t important, but we can’t get an outcome.”
Although several other GOP senators have floated that idea, it’s unclear whether enough will side with Democrats for the standalone aid to pass.
The senior Democratic aide said it would be “an embarrassing prospect” if Republicans blocked the foreign aid twice in one day.
“First, Republicans said they would only do Ukraine and Israel [and] humanitarian aid with border. Then they said they would not do it with border,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “We’re going to give them both options.”
The bipartisan border deal was assailed by Senate and House Republicans as being too weak on the illegal immigration flood, especially allowing at least 4,000 migrants into the country per day, forcing Mr. McConnell and its Republican architect — Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma — to ditch the agreement.
Even if the Senate manages to greenlight the standalone foreign aid, it’s likely to die in the Republican-controlled House.