Sen. Tom Cotton has delivered his verdict on President Biden’s $100 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and domestic security on the border — “dead on arrival.”
“President Biden’s slush fund proposal is dead on arrival, just like his budgets,” Mr. Cotton said in a statement Friday. “We will not spend, for example, $3.5 billion to address the ‘potential needs of Gazans,’ essentially functioning as a resupply line for Hamas terrorists.”
The Arkansas Republican took issue with spending $11.8 billion on Ukraine for “non-war spending such as funding retirement pensions for Ukrainian government employees.”
He also called out the money that would be spent on illegal immigrants.
“Nor will we spend $4.7 billion for housing, transportation, and ‘services’ for illegal aliens in the United States rather than deporting them,” he said. “The Biden proposal is going nowhere, and Senate Republicans will take the lead on crafting a funding bill that protects Americans and their interests.”
The roughly $105 billion package includes $60 billion for Ukraine, roughly $14 billion for Israel and $14 billion for the U.S. southern border. It also allotted $7.4 billion for Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific and around $10 billion for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.
The package is stalled in the House because no legislation can move until a speaker is elected.
Mr. Cotton’s comments highlight potentially more serious hurdles for the aid package.
Mr. Cotton is not the only Senate Republican who has an issue with the deal. Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tennessee Republican, said giving the Biden administration “more money to fuel its disastrous open-borders resettlement operation is insanity.”
“It would worsen the border crisis, not stop it,” he wrote on X, Friday.
Shalanda D. Young, the White House budget director, said the president will “not be lectured by those who refuse to act” on border security. “Congress needs to take action to provide sufficient resources for the border,” she said.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he would try to quickly advance the aid.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.