Sen. Chuck Schumer hit Republicans for rejecting the bipartisan foreign aid and border security bill that they were once demanding and said he will move forward with "Plan B" if they continued to filibuster the package.
Wednesday, Schumer told reporters he was going to give GOP Senators “the night” to decide on Ukraine aid:
The nasty GOP fight over Ukraine and the border has paralyzed the Senate.
Why it matters: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. But his caucus largely abandoned him on the border bill he backed, and he hasn't found the votes to move forward.
- "We're going to give Republicans the night to figure themselves out, and we're going to vote tomorrow," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday night.
Catch up quick: Senate Republicans filibustered on Wednesday a $118 billion foreign aid package with a bipartisan border deal, which was aggressively attacked by former President Trump and House Republicans.
- So Schumer took the border parts out, and forced Republicans to decide whether they were willing to consider just the aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.
- The procedural vote which was left open for hours, while Republicans hashed out their options behind closed doors. It didn't work.
Schumer plans to separate out the border security from the foreign aid if there's another failed vote:
Following the unsuccessful vote on the $118 billion package, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated his plans to bring up an Israel and Ukraine aid package that would leave out border security provisions. The Senate, however, was recessed after it lacked the 60 votes needed to proceed with the package Wednesday night.
Schumer said the Senate would recess until noon Thursday to give Republicans “the night to figure themselves out.”
Hours before Senate Republicans blocked the bipartisan border security bill, Schumer told Democrats about his plans to put forward a supplemental aid package without border security provisions. He had expected the procedural vote on the bipartisan border security bill to fail, and planned on calling another 60-vote threshold vote for the supplemental aid package that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
In addition to foreign aid, the pared-down package would also include provisions targeting fentanyl trafficking, a Senate Democratic aide told NBC News.
UPDATE: The aid package advances on a vote of 67-32.
