One has Biden ramping up on the “ultra-MAGA” GOP heading into the midterm elections. At the same time, the other sees him peacefully ceding ground to the opposition to ensure the passage of his spending proposals.
The second dynamic was described by the House’s passage of a nearly $40 billion Ukrainian aid package. Biden had previously sent Congress joint bids for supplemental aid for Ukraine and additional COVID-19 funding, but he eventually caved to Republican calls to decouple the requests.
“I call on Congress to pass the Ukrainian Supplemental funding bill immediately and get it to my desk in the next few days,” the President said in a statement Monday.
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“Previously, I had recommended that Congress take overdue action on much-needed funding for COVID treatments, vaccines, and tests as part of the Ukraine Supplemental bill. However, I have been informed by congressional leaders in both parties that such an addition would slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid — a view expressed strongly by several congressional Republicans,” Biden said. “We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort. Hence, I am prepared to accept that these two measures move separately so that the Ukrainian aid bill can get to my desk right away.”
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The bill enacted by the House is admittedly larger than Biden’s original request and includes nearly $4 billion more in humanitarian aid than what the White House asked for. Fifty-seven Republicans voted against the bill, with reasons ranging from not being able to read the text until midnight on Tuesday morning to wanting the Biden administration to focus on border security rather than the pandemic.
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Similarly, a group of Republican lawmakers has also voiced openness to meeting Biden’s COVID-19 request should the President postpone ending Title 42, the pandemic-era order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowing for the immediate expulsion of asylum-seekers at the southern border.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say Tuesday if the President would consider preserving Title 42 for another round of COVID-19 funding.
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“There's a lot of steps that would need to happen before that comes to the President's desk,” she told reporters at the White House briefing. “I would say our view, or his view, continues to be that the lifting of Title 42 is a decision made by the CDC. It was the authority given to them by Congress. That should not be holding up funding that’s necessary to save the lives of Americans.”
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