Can Congress act on Ukraine, border?

WASHINGTON — Senate negotiators were trying to land a bipartisan border security proposal this week that could unlock Senate Republican support for Ukraine aid. But as Congress returns, House conservatives are trying to interject their own hardline immigration demands.

Senate negotiators met Monday morning as they raced to finish work on legislative text. They were hoping this week to present the details of a bipartisan bill aimed at reducing the number of migrants who travel to the southern border to apply for asylum protections in the U.S. The small group of senators has been working for months on the legislation after Republicans insisted on pairing border policy changes with supplemental funding for Ukraine, but disagreements remained.

“I am more hopeful right now, even more than I was a few days ago, that we can get something meaningful done on the border and pass the supplemental,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a speech Monday. “Getting over the finish line is still not going to be easy.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has also been directly involved in the talks as the president tries to both secure support for a top foreign policy priority — funding Ukraine’s defense against Russia — and demonstrate action on a potential political weakness — his handling of the historic number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Biden has faced staunch resistance from conservatives to his $110 billion request for a package of wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel as well as other national security priorities. In the Senate, Republicans have demanded that the funding be paired with border security changes.

“The stakes here are quite high,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. “We have an opportunity to make the most comprehensive headway on border security in a generation.”

But in the House, conservatives have criticized any proposals that fall short of the strict border measures they passed on a party-line vote last year. And some House members aligned with Donald Trump, the former president and current Republican presidential front-runner, have suggested they would not support any bipartisan proposal — no matter the substance — if it means giving Biden a border bill to sign in an election year.

Over the weekend, congressional leaders reached a separate agreement on overall spending figures for the current fiscal year as they try to pass legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks. But leaders made no mention of border policies or Ukraine aid, and some conservatives in the House have pushed to use the prospect of a government shutdown as further leverage in the negotiations over border policy.