The Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has written a letter to members of Congress expressing doubts that the bill to provide new aid to Ukraine and strengthen U.S. border security can be passed in its current form.
At the end of last year, the US Congress failed to approve a law according to which Washington allocates another package of military aid to Kyiv, as well as takes measures to strengthen the southern borders and fight illegal immigration.
The package of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as allocations for strengthening the southern border, amounts to more than $100 billion, with more than $60 billion allocated to Ukraine.
Members of the Republican Party insisted on simultaneous approval of these unrelated issues, thus trying to force the administration of President Joe Biden to make concessions on the border issue.
On Friday, The Hill and AFP reported on Johnson's letter, in which he said that members of the Republican-controlled Senate "probably cannot reach any agreement," and that Republicans in the House of Representatives are not ready to support it either.
"If the rumors about the content of the draft amendments to the bill are true, it would still be initially unpassable in the House," The Hill quoted the speaker's letter as saying.
According to the publication, the problems with the bill are largely related to Donald Trump's recent victory in the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Trump believes that the measures provided for in the bill to combat illegal immigration are insufficient, and he also wants to use the border issue against Biden in the November presidential election, The Hill notes.
Background. As reported, it was Trump who influenced the two parties not to reach an agreement on the issue of regulating the migration crisis.