Capito urges vote on border security funding deal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is among the Senate Republicans who are demanding that President Biden’s national security funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Tawain [sic] be tied to policy changes to address the southern border crisis.

Capito (R-W.Va.) said during a Thursday call with reporters that negotiators are ready to release details of a bipartisan plan to reduce the surge of migrants at the border, but she hasn’t seen the final text yet.

“It will have significant border policy provisions in it, but we haven’t seen it specifically, so I haven’t weighed in on it one way or the other,” Capito said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against the Senate’s bipartisan immigration deal Wednesday during his first floor speech as speaker. The speaker argued that Biden must do more to address the border crisis on his own using executive authority and also pointed the finger at U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Former President and GOP presential candidate Donald Trump has also slammed the deal and urged lawmakers to oppose it.

House Republicans have pushed back on the deal saying they are unlikely to support it. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said Wednesday tying the border deal to Ukraine aid is prolonging negotiations.

Capito said cities across the nation are seeing the ripple effects of these stalled discussions.

“Some of the larger cities in this country are just suffering from the burden and there’s no accountability here from the administration, so we need to do something, but we don’t need to throw more money at the problem. We need to change policies,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Ny) said Wednesday democrats want border and Ukraine tied together as part of the national security supplemental. Capito said the Senate needs to act quickly if they want to deter more illegal migrant crossings.

“It is such an enormous problem with 302,000 in the month of December alone, the most ever, over 10,000 to 12,000 a day. We are just being overrun by millions of people a year,” she said.

When asked about the border deal on his way to the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill Thursday morning, President Biden said he will try to get it done.