Young Republicans slam Senate bill that ignores US migrant crisis, funds Ukraine

 Young Senate Republicans rebuked GOP leadership after the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill without addressing the migrant crisis at the southern border.

On Tuesday morning, the Senate voted 70 to 29 in favor of President Biden's requested supplemental package of aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and the Indo-Pacific. The bill passed after weeks of contentious debate, during which bipartisan negotiators proposed a compromise on border security funding, which was rejected by conservatives and declared dead upon reaching the House of Representatives.

"This morning the last of America's caucuses passed a $61 billion aid package from the Senate. But this small victory came at a high price. The House failed to pass the current bill," Senator JD Vance, R-Ohio, posted on Twitter. Will do." After passing the supplemental package.

"We must fix our country before dedicating more resources to Ukraine," Vance said in a statement summarizing the complaint of the 22 Republicans who voted against the package.

The US has already spent more than $100 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war against Russia began in February 2022.

The funding bill passed Tuesday morning includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and nearly $5 billion for the Indo-Pacific. Democrats brought the package up for a vote after Republicans blocked a previous $118 billion package, which included several bipartisan border and immigration provisions.

The final legislation contained no border security provisions and was condemned by many young members of the Republican convention.

"Almost every Republican senator under the age of 55 voted no on This Is America's last bill," Sen. Eric Schmidt, R-Mo., 48, said on Twitter. "Not changing fast enough."

Republican radicals attempted to introduce amendments with border security provisions, but they were not voted down.

Republicans are trying to include radical border security bill in foreign aid package

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cosponsored the House immigration bill, H.R. 2, which would reinstate most Trump-era restrictions, hire additional Border Patrol officers and tighten asylum screening.

"I cannot in good conscience support this bill without real, substantial additions to strengthen border security," Cruz said in a statement after the bill passed without his amendments.

"...[W]e must defend our nation first. I will vote to support aid to our allies, but only after America's border is secure. No state bears more of this burden than Texas." The heavy burden isn't being borne by those on the front lines of what Cruz called "a literal assault on millions and millions of illegal aliens."

Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, who led the filibuster effort with Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Republicans who voted in favor of the package would have reneged on a commitment they made to each other. And for their voters and our House Republican colleagues in the hall."

Senate Republicans prepare for long fight over Ukraine, Israel aid

The split in the Senate GOP conference on foreign aid represents an ideological divide as well as a generational divide. Lee is 52 years old. Cruz is 53 years old, and Vance is 39 years old. Paul is 61, but still two decades younger than his colleague from Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81.

Placeholder McConnell fought hard for Ukraine funding, arguing that it is in America's national interest to remain a global defender of countries' sovereignty against aggressive aggressors such as Russia.

"I know it has become quite fashionable in some circles to ignore our global interests as a global power, to shirk the responsibilities of global leadership," McConnell said at the Super Bowl on Sunday. "Lamenting the commitment that has underlined the longest drought of great power conflict in human history – it is idle work for idle minds, and it has no place in the United States Senate."

Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas became emotional in a speech in support of the bill, saying the US has a responsibility to assist Ukraine against Russian aggression.

"I believe in America first, but unfortunately America first means we have to engage the world," Moran, 69, said.

Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, 76, called the vote to provide military aid to Ukraine "the most important vote I have ever made as a U.S. senator."

The supplemental package now heads to the House, where 52-year-old House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has already declared it a nonstarter without border security funding.

"The mandate of the National Security Supplemental Act was to secure America's own border before sending additional foreign assistance around the world," Johnson said in a statement Monday. “This is what the American people demand and deserve.”