US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has told three Baltic parliamentary leaders that US President Joe Biden's supplemental national security bill, which includes aid to Ukraine, is "likely" to be divided over concerns about border policy reforms, The Hill reports, citing a source, UNN writes.
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Johnson reportedly said that the decision would ultimately depend on the border text to be proposed by US Senate negotiators, which he told senior European lawmakers.
The Hill reached out to Johnson's office for comment. Semafor first reported on the speaker's remarks. Johnson's spokesman, Raj Shah, told Semafor that the comments were made in a hypothetical context.
These remarks, as noted, came as Johnson and other Republicans made it clear that the US Senate deal, which would combine aid to Ukraine with changes in migration and border policy, would be "dead on arrival" in the US House of Representatives if the text of the bill matches the reports of its contents.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the newspaper notes, has called on Republicans to abandon any bipartisan border deal to deny President Biden a victory in the legislature. Democrats have accused Republicans of scuttling the deal out of a desire to help Trump in his fight against Biden in 2024, but Johnson said earlier this week that the claim was "absurd.
"While Republicans in the House of Representatives are increasingly opposed to increasing aid to Ukraine, allies in Europe have expressed confidence that Johnson and the majority in Congress support continued U.S. aid to Ukraine," the newspaper notes.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, one of the negotiators on border policy reform, said that there is still a consensus to keep border policy reforms within a larger supplemental national security bill that includes aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
"We have an agreement. I think the bigger problem we're trying to solve is whether the Republican conference has the votes to pass it," Murphy said.
"I think the demands to reunite the border and Ukraine have been pretty consistent, not only in the Senate, but also in the House of Representatives," he added.
The three Baltic parliamentary leaders spoke to a group of journalists on Wednesday morning and said that the meeting with Johnson was positive and that he expressed US support for Ukraine.
Estonian Parliament Speaker Lauri Hussar said the Speaker of the House of Representatives has expressed "readiness" to provide US aid to Ukraine, saying "there must be a way to find a solution to the problems" and "internal issues" standing in the way. "He expressed a willingness to work on a solution to continue to help Ukraine," Hussar said.
Speaker of the Latvian parliament Daiga Mierinia said that the leaders of the Baltic states are confident that there is a majority of support for providing assistance to Ukraine in the Congress.