Bipartisan House lawmakers working to finalize military aid-border bill

A bipartisan group of lawmakers plans to roll out their alternative proposal to send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and secure the border on Thursday, one of the Republican organizers said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO a compromise Ukraine-border funding bill would be unveiled Thursday — the last day before the House leaves D.C. for a week-plus recess — with a group of four bipartisan co-sponsors. The centrist lawmaker acknowledged they don’t have wide GOP buy-in on the package yet.

“We’ve just got to find a way to get more Republicans on board,” Bacon said.

The bipartisan group — including Bacon, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and two Democrats that Bacon declined to name — is focusing their proposal on military assistance, trimming billions in humanitarian and economic aid from the $95 billion package passed by the Senate this week. Those lawmakers also plan to include a form of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy, which requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting a hearing with U.S. immigration judges.

Bacon predicted trimming non-military aid approved by the Senate could reduce the price tag of his counterproposal into the low $60 billion range.

“If we could focus on military aid and do a clear pro-border security element like ‘Remain in Mexico,’ that secures a lot of Republican votes,” Bacon said. “And there’s enough Democrats who agree. So we’re gonna try it.”

The Nebraska Republican indicated he was having dinner with Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday to discuss the proposal.

Fitzpatrick, a co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, first indicated official plans to file an alternative Ukraine and border security proposal on Wednesday. Johnson has effectively killed the Senate-passed proposal in its current form, arguing it fails to address border security. A previous bipartisan bill that tied stricter border policies with foreign aid tanked in the Senate amid GOP opposition, after Johnson said it was dead on arrival in the House.

Johnson has said the House will “work its will” on its own proposal. The Fitzpatrick-led framework could offer Johnson a chance to do so. It’s unclear what other proposals could come forward, particularly ones that have any chance at passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“You can’t please everybody, and I know he’s got a great heart. He’s trying to get broad consensus,” Bacon said of Johnson. “If you think you’re gonna pass something with 218 Republican votes [and] that’s what you’ve got to have, you’re not gonna get a lot done.”

Even if the consensus package can make it through the conservative firebrands in the House, passage in the Senate is far from guaranteed. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders have repeatedly pushed Johnson to take up the upper chamber’s bill, which 22 GOP senators backed.

“My friends on the other side are responsible for basically setting the world on fire right now,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said on the floor this week after Johnson indicated he wouldn’t support the Senate measure.

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus with Fitzpatrick, said in a brief interview that any foreign aid supplemental bill must be bipartisan to pass the narrowly divided House. Some House Democrats are expected to reject any bill that includes Israel aid, due to its military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

“There’s many options and the only thing we know for sure it’s going to have to be bipartisan,” Quigley said in a brief interview. “It’s just the math. It’s not just the narrow numbers, it’s a division on both sides.”

It’s unclear how lead House Democrats will react to the bill. House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) threw cold water on the emerging bill on Thursday, saying that Johnson should bring the bipartisan Senate-passed supplemental to the House floor immediately. Asked about the Fitzpatrick-led efforts, she said: “Wrong question.”

“I told you what I’m open to. Bring the damn thing up and let’s vote on it,” she told reporters.