Maine Democratic Congressman Jared Golden and a bipartisan group of his House colleagues are pushing for the expedited consideration of their compromise border security and foreign aid package bill.
The package was introduced earlier this month as an alternative to the $95 billion foreign aid package passed by the Senate and deemed dead on arrival by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act,” spearheaded by Reps. Golden and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), proposes $66 billion in defense spending to support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, alongside the implementation of a handful of border security measures.
Among the border security policies included in Golden and Fitzpatrick’s bill is a one-year “Remain in Mexico” policy for migrants with pending asylum claims, as well as a one-year mandatory expulsion of inadmissible migrants without further hearing or review, with some humanitarian exceptions — similar to the COVID-era Title 42 authority.
Golden and Fitzpatrick joined Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday to pitch the compromise legislative package.
“This is time sensitive, it’s existential,” the centrist Republican Rep. Fitzpatrick told Brennan, pointing to Ukraine’s precarious position in maintaining their war effort against Russia, as well as the recent alleged murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by a Venezuelan migrant, and the fentanyl crisis.
“We lost Laken Riley in the past seven days. And in the past seven days, 200 families had to bury their kids because of fentanyl,” Fitzpatrick said. “So what our bill does is it combines border security with this foreign aid, both existential.”
Golden, co-chair of the House Democrat’s moderate “Blue Dog” coalition, told Brennan he believes the foreign aid and border measures both have the votes to pass the House.
“Well, I think that the most important thing to remember here is that the votes are there to support Ukraine and our other allies, Israel, Taiwan,” Golden said. “And I think that the votes are there on border security as well.”
Golden told Brennan that there needs to be an “open debate on the House floor” on the bipartisan legislation.
“Amendments should be in order, we need to find a way to get a deal that gets us to 218,” he said. “I think a deal like that has to grow out of the middle, and is unlikely to begin with a one-party solution.”
[RELATED: ‘Dead on Arrival:’ Senate Border and Foreign Aid Package Faces Immediate Backlash…]
When pressed by the CBS News anchor whether or not his Democratic colleagues in the House would support a bill that contains stringent border security measures and does not include humanitarian aid, Golden indicated that there is a potential for humanitarian aid to be added to the package.
“Potentially, yes,” Golden told Brennan when asked if humanitarian aid could be amended into the legislation.
“Although I think that we also have to set priorities,” Golden continued. “So at the end of the day, what are the most important crises that we have to deal with in the here and now in the very short term, and I would say that that would be securing our border, and also helping avoid battlefield catastrophes in Ukraine.”
[RELATED: Jared Golden Signs Letter Urging Biden Admin to Send More Weapons to Ukraine…]
Golden’s support of the compromise legislative package appears to conflict with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who Golden said is pushing for the $95 billion Senate bill via a discharge petition, a parliamentary procedure to bypass Speaker Johnson to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
“What I would say is that the [Senate bill’s] discharge petition doesn’t have any Republican support,” Golden explained. “What we have now is a bill with a discharge petition that is led by a Republican.”
The discharge petition for either the Senate bill or Golden and Fitzpatrick’s bill would require support of 218 House members in order to force a vote.
Golden said Sunday that the “Senate would likely take up something that passes the House with a bipartisan vote.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Golden’s Democratic House colleague, stated Friday on Maine Calling that she is opposed to Golden’s proposed compromise legislation.
“I would have a hard time voting for it, because it funds Ukraine and Israel and a few other defense needs, but it doesn’t have any humanitarian aid in Gaza and I think people would be really distressed at this point in time if there wasn’t more humanitarian aid,” Pingree said on the radio program.
The debate over funding for Ukraine and border security comes as Congress races against a March 1 deadline to reach an agreement on compromise spending bills to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The four Congressional leaders of both parties are slated to meet Tuesday with President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss government funding and the halted Senate foreign aid package.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25994 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25994">10 Comments
Time to stop pretending about U.S. involvement in Ukraine:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/02/26/facing-catastrophic-consequences-new-york-times-now-outlines-construct-of-ukraine-as-usa-proxy-province/
Golden boy pitches a soft ball. Yikes!!!! Grow a real beard like REAL MAINERS! Bidenboy..
How about $0 for Ukraine, and NO to our country being led by the nose to WWIII by a cokehead actor, Israel, and the meatpuppet regime in the White House
THEN we can talk about anything else
Hard to take Golden seriously when he doesn’t even know how to dress properly. I am sure Soros would be willing go buy him a suit as well as his votes.
Any bill needs to permanently seal our borders not a temporary 1 year deal. Why are the US taxpayers providing any humanitarian aid to the Hamas terrorists? I can’t think of any reason why we should. Any aid provided to that area ends up in the hands of the Hamas terrorists because they steal it. Congress needs to stop their ridiculous spending and work on balancing the budget through large spending and program cuts.
What’s up with the flannel shirt and beard????
financially supporting border security should not be buried in with moneys for supposed humanitarian aid.
“This is time sensitive. It’s existential.” To whom? Ukraine of course, our “Representatives” number one priority. Meanwhile Americans are living on the streets, struggling to pay their bills and the country is 34 TRILLION dollars in debt but by all means, let’s borrow 66 billion dollars and give it, give mind, not loan,to a country famous for it’s corruption.
This twerp is eyeing the governors seat after Mills goes out to pasture. I think he miscalculated with his new 2nd amendment enlightenment.
Ahhh, parading the meat puppet out because it looks like his time in congress is about over! The demonrats that run the Maine democrat party that in fact are outright communists are scared to death that their grip on the state is slipping away with the multi-millionaire carpetbagger Pingree that has never represented Mainers and Golden a phony meat puppet that does what he’s told by the demonrat party! The state hasn’t had any representation for too many years with King Anus the carpetbagger that has done nothing for the state except enrich himself at the expense of real Mainers, Pingree also a carpetbagger that holds up in her island mansion when she is in Maine, and the phony Golden that swaps his story to whoever he’s talking to, and sorrily Collins who it seems you can always depend on to not depend on all in the name of bipartisanship.It’s a sorry lot. I am saddened by the influx of aliens that bring their leftist mentality that is destroying the quality of life for so many Mainers by supporting the likes these leftists and the drug addict governor. Shame on all that do!