Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday dug in against President Biden’s efforts to revive stalled legislation to send aid to Ukraine, saying the Republican-led House would not entertain it unless Democrats agreed to a far more severe crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border than they have been willing to consider.
Mr. Johnson’s latest ultimatum cast further doubt on the prospects of Congress’s approving Mr. Biden’s request for tens of billions of dollars in emergency security assistance to help Ukraine fight off Russia.
Republicans have insisted that such a package be paired with measures to clamp down on migration at the southwestern border, and a bipartisan group of senators has made considerable progress on striking a compromise to do so. But the plan has no path to enactment if the House, where a sizable far-right contingent is pressing for far more severe immigration policies, refuses to accept it.
“I told the president what I had been saying for many months, and that is that we must have change at the border, substantive policy change,” Mr. Johnson told reporters after emerging from a meeting with Mr. Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House, adding: “We must insist that the border be the top priority.”
Mr. Biden summoned top lawmakers in both parties, including the top-ranking national security committee lawmakers in Congress, in an urgent bid to break a monthslong logjam over the aid to Ukraine.
During the meeting, Mr. Biden underscored that Congress needed to pass funding for air defense and artillery capabilities in order for Ukraine to continue to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, according to a statement from the White House, and that doing so quickly would “send a strong signal of U.S. resolve.”
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