Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday punted the test vote on a defense bill that would provide funding for Ukraine as leadership negotiates a path forward on the legislation.
Senate Republicans blocked a similar bill earlier in the day that also included a border compromise opposed by most of the conference, but Schumer’s decision to hold a second vote, this time on the pared-down version, sent the Senate into a state of paralysis.
Schumer kept a procedural vote open for roughly four hours as the two sides attempted to reach an agreement on a set of amendments that would be considered before final passage, likely sometime next week.
But as the evening wore on, the majority leader decided to send lawmakers home for the day and regroup for a test vote on Thursday instead. Fifty-eight senators voted for the procedural step, signaling the two sides were close to clearing the 60-vote hurdle needed to begin debate on the defense bill.
“We’ll be coming back tomorrow at noon, and hopefully that will give the Republicans the time they need,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “We will have this vote tomorrow.”
Schumer had told reporters on Wednesday morning there would be a “fair and open amendment process” on the foreign aid bill, which would fund Ukraine but also Israel and Taiwan. Yet Republicans wanted assurances before agreeing to move forward.
The decision to adjourn marked an anticlimactic end to a day defined by Republican division over the aid bill.
The conference had a fiery debate during lunch for two hours, going back and forth about whether to support the legislation.
“The last few months have been just abysmally embarrassing,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), coming out of the meeting on Wednesday.
Conservative Republicans said they were against funding the scaled-down version due to skepticism over sending more money to Ukraine in its war with Russia but also because of a desire to continue pairing Ukraine with border security, albeit with stricter provisions than those negotiated by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“I don’t like the message it sends to Americans that because the Democrats are unwilling to secure our border, we’re moving right to funding another country’s border,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO). “I think that’s problematic.”
More centrist figures, such as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), indicated support for moving forward with the legislation earlier in the day.
“I intend to vote for it,” Tillis said, speaking with reporters on Wednesday. “I think there’s a general sense a lot of people want to get on the defense bill — that’s what we’re talking about with the Ukraine bill, the national defense bill.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed support for a vote on the supplemental aid bill without the border provisions during a press conference on Tuesday.
“There are other parts of this supplemental; they’re extremely important as well — Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan,” McConnell said. “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. So, that’s where I think we ought to head.”
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The Senate Appropriations Committee released the legislative text of the more than $95 billion foreign aid bill on Wednesday. The funding includes aid for Ukraine, security assistance to Israel, humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine, $4.8 billion to help Taiwan and Indo-Pacific allies, and an additional $2.4 billion to support U.S. Central Command operations in the Red Sea. The bill still includes provisions targeting fentanyl trafficking, part of the border agreement.
“I am determined to not let partisanship win the day. We are going to try again to pass a package that gets our allies the aid they so desperately need,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, in a speech on the Senate floor.
