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Democratic border negotiator doubts Biden EO will survive court challenge

June 4, 2024
A new executive order from President Joe Biden will shut down asylum requests at the southern border if illegal crossings surpass 2,500 per day. According to The Associated Press, which spoke with White House officials, the asylum claim process would be reopened once the average daily crossings between ports of entry drops to 1,500.

However, before the order was even signed, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., cast doubt on whether it would survive a court challenge.

“The courts are going to decide whether Biden has the power to do what he’s proposing to do,” Murphy told reporters. “I have been pretty doubtful from the beginning that the president has the legal authority to make the big changes at the border necessary to get the border under control. To me, the only thing that we are sure will fix the problem at the border is the bipartisan border bill.”

Murphy said he is still angry with Republicans for killing the bipartisan border deal that he negotiated with Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. That anger appears to be felt by multiple members of the Democratic Party.

“Why did they kill it? At the behest of Donald Trump who said he wanted chaos at the border until after the election. Shame on our Republican friends,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “They say they want to protect the border, Donald Trump comes out with a very crass statement, ‘Let’s keep it in chaos so I might win the election,’ and they go along, they do a 180 degree turn. That’s a disgrace.”

Meanwhile, Republicans still contend President Biden is responsible for the current state of the border by pausing border wall construction and ending the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

“This is too little, too late,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said.

Republicans said Biden could have done something about this years ago, but waited until now to help his reelection.

“He could have stopped this every single day of his presidency,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said. “When he signs this executive order the only question people should ask is, ‘Why didn’t you do this in 2021?’”

Multiple organizations including the ACLU said they will be reviewing the order before they make a decision on challenging it in court.
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Senate effort to pass TikTok bill likely to take until summer

March 21, 2024
The TikTok bill that passed the House of Representatives in a 352-65 vote in just eight days is stalled in the Senate with no clear path forward. After a classified briefing Wednesday, March 20, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said it’s yet to be determined whether the Senate will take that bill up or write something entirely new.

“We don’t know yet what the Senate will do in terms of whether it will be the same bill, a different bill, alterations of the bill or not,” Casey said. “But that’s yet to be determined by both parties in the Senate.”

The House-passed bill requires TikTok to be sold off by its parent company ByteDance or be banned in the United States. Lawmakers explained that because ByteDance is based in China, the Chinese Communist Party can use the app to collect data on Americans and spread disinformation.

If the Senate makes just one amendment to the bill, it will need to go back to the House to be reapproved before it can be signed by the president.

“It’s likely because obviously the House has a proposal, the Senate is going to be able to take a look at its own solutions as well and to be able to determine what’s the best way to resolve this,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said. “No one wants to take away the ability of Americans to be able to share cat videos with each other, that’s not a big deal. But the ability for a communist government to be able to reach into the homes and lives of individuals here in the United States.”

Not taking into account how slowly the Senate works, passing a TikTok bill in the chamber will take a minimum of one month based on the legislative schedule. However, the effort is more likely to go into the summer.

Congress has three weeks off between March and the end of April, and senators want to hold a yet-to-be scheduled public hearing before they take action.

On March 20, senators received a classified briefing from the FBI and director of National Intelligence on TikTok’s ability to surveil and distribute Chinese government disinformation.

Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Intelligence Committee told reporters he wants to make some of that information public.

Opponents of the bill contend that this is big government singling out an individual company and that it should really be curbing all social media companies. Lankford was in the classified briefing and said he didn’t hear anything to address those concerns.

“I’ve been tracking this for a while to be able to see how China is using the data of Americans, how they’re harvesting American’s data and then the potential they have to be able to influence that,” Lankford said. “We’ve seen not just that they could do it, that they are doing it. We’ve also seen in other countries how they’ve actually engaged to be able to influence, whether it be the public policy, whether it be elections.”

If the House bill becomes law, ByteDance will have six months to sell TikTok before a ban takes effect. There are already American investors seeking to buy the company. The Financial Times puts its forced sale value at $88 billion.
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House has competing petitions to vote on foreign aid despite Johnson opposition

March 13, 2024
Rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives have brought forward two competing discharge petitions to go around Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and bring a foreign aid package up for a vote. The first discharge petition would force a vote on the Senate foreign aid bill that provides funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The first petition is sponsored by Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Rules Committee.

The second discharge petition, sponsored by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would also provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and also include measures to increase security at the southern border.

For either one of these discharge petitions to be successful, they need a simple majority, which requires 216 members due to recent resignations.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who heads a new working group of Democrats for border security, said he prefers the original border deal negotiated by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and James Lankford, R-Okla., because he believes it’s more comprehensive. However, if the Fitzpatrick bill came up for a vote, he would support it.

“Senator Lankford, Murphy, they all work together to put something together, along with the administration,” Cuellar said. “I’ve seen it, it is one of the strongest border security bills that we have. But if the other one would come up, it was on the floor, I would support it.”

Cuellar also said it’s up to Fitzpatrick to get enough Republicans to get it done. Fitzpatrick disagrees.

“We can’t say it’s on any one party to get this done,” Fitzpatrick told Straight Arrow News. “We can’t. In a two vote margin, with divided chambers, this has got to be a two-party solution, that’s the only way it happens.”

Speaker Johnson opposes discharge petitions. By their nature, they force the House to vote on a bill that he won’t bring forward.

However, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, also opposes both the Senate and Fitzpatrick bills and he doesn’t think Republicans should support them.

Crenshaw said he’s optimistic something better will be brought forward.

“I think more to come in the following week, but we can definitely do better,” Crenshaw said. “Better would look like, you know, still support Ukraine, which pay for it with Russian frozen assets, and you do something on the border.”

Fitzpatrick countered that any new proposal would be even harder to pass than the two already in circulation.

“Any bill that gets introduced now is going to require to be put on suspension, which needs 290 votes,” Fitzpatrick said. “To have a border-Ukraine bill that gets 290 votes, that’s probably not going to happen. So I don’t think that’s a wise effort at this point.”
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Senators say WHO pandemic treaty could destroy innovation ecosystem

February 22, 2024
The World Health Organization is developing a pandemic treaty that it contends will help prevent pandemics and increase preparedness to save lives, reduce disease burden and protect livelihoods. The WHO said it’s doing this because the international community’s response to COVID-19 was a “catastrophic failure.”

However, a bipartisan group of senators is telling the Biden administration it is concerned the treaty could undermine intellectual property laws and, in turn, disincentivize research and development into vaccines.

A draft of the treaty reveals it could require countries to provide “real-time access by WHO to 20% of the production of safe, efficacious and effective pandemic-related products, including diagnostics, vaccines, personal protective equipment and therapeutics, to enable equitable distribution…”

“This means that if a company successfully develops a pandemic-related product, that company will not be able to realize any return on investment,” Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote in a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“Alarmingly, such a provision may lead companies to refrain altogether from developing new pandemic-related products and instead choose to invest in other areas that do not involve the same legal risks,” the letter says. “If such a policy had been in place ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, it could have prevented innovations critical to ending the global public health emergency, such as mRNA vaccines or Paxlovid.”

A public comment period on these treaty provisions closed on Jan. 22. The Health and Human Services Department asked the public to specifically address incentives, research and collaboration when providing responses.

The senators are asking the Biden administration to seek significantly more public feedback through hearings and studies.

“The draft agreement under consideration, however, contains many provisions that would undercut — if not destroy — the very aspects of our innovation ecosystem that just recently produced such positive results,” the senators wrote.

The WHO wants to finalize the draft of the treaty so it can be formally debated and considered at the World Health Assembly, which begins May 27.
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Border security bill dead in Senate, Israel aid doomed in House

February 6, 2024
The bipartisan border security bill that the Senate spent three months negotiating is dead two days after it was publicly released. House Republican leadership immediately said they won’t bring it up for a vote and a growing number of Senate Republicans won’t support it.

Now, Senate GOP leadership indicated a vote on the bill will fail.

“We have no real chance here to make a law,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday, Feb. 6.

“People have not had enough time to read the bill. It is inadequate. So I agree with our whip, I don’t think this will pass and I think we need to move on,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., said.

One of the biggest supporters of negotiating the border security and foreign aid provisions together, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., came out against the bill, serving as one of the final nails in the coffin.

“After reviewing the bill text, there are provisions that are highly problematic, especially considering the fact that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas caused this border crisis and have refused to use existing laws already on the books to address it,” Tillis said in statement announcing his decision. “It is hard to trust that the Biden Administration would even implement this bill in good faith.”

https://twitter.com/SenThomTillis/status/1754875843925451147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1754875843925451147%7Ctwgr%5Eab96380d4cd576a75f29a5ba228d5d38f8f8d39c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.carolinajournal.com%2Ftillis-budd-opposed-to-biden-border-deal%2F

Democrats blame the bill’s impending failure on former President Donald Trump.

“Republicans have definitively sided with Donald Trump,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “They’ve decided they want to keep chaos at the border because it is a political winner for them.”

“Even though it helps the country he’s not for it,” President Joe Biden said of Trump. “He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.”

Democrats said they’re angry with Republicans for making demands regarding border security provisions, then backing out.

“Republicans need to get their balls out of Trump’s desk and vote for this s–t you’ve been asking for for months,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said.

The bill would have overhauled the country’s asylum laws, provided $650 million to build more border wall and required the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deport anyone who tries to cross the border if the weekly average crossings hit 5,000 per day. The package would have also given billions to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

It was negotiated by Sens. Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and James Lankford, R-Okla., who believed there could still be a chance for the bill to move forward.

“Let’s talk about the amendments, what needs to be done at the end of the day, the worst case scenario is to do nothing,” Lankford told reporters.

Nothing is going to happen for now. House Republicans introduced a standalone bill to provide $17.6 billion to Israel but it needed a two-thirds vote for approval.

House Democratic leaders announced they would vote “no” earlier in the day. They called it a “nakedly obvious and cynical attempt by MAGA extremists to undermine the possibility of a comprehensive, bipartisan funding package.”

While a comprehensive immigration and foreign aid package is dead for now, there may still be an effort to pass the foreign aid separately.
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Border Patrol union endorses Senate immigration deal

February 5, 2024
The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents around the country, has come out in support of the newly released bipartisan Senate border deal. Council President Brandon Judd said it will give agents new authorities that they have not had in the past, giving undecided lawmakers a key nod of approval.

“This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States.” Judd said in a statement. “This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension. While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo. This is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for its quick passage.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., said she was proud to have the endorsement. Sinema, along with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., were the principal negotiators of the bill.

“There is a crisis at our border, and our bipartisan border security package fixes it,” Sinema said. “Now, senators must make a decision: pass our package and solve the crisis or accept the status quo, do nothing, and keep playing politics while our system breaks and our communities continue to suffer.”

The new Senate border deal is a 280-page makeover of the country’s asylum, work authorization, and immigration adjudication system.

The bill has the support of the president, Senate leaders from both parties and House Democratic leadership. However, it appears to be doomed to fail because House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it “dead on arrival” in his chamber, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who is in charge of scheduling votes, said it will not receive one.

Here’s the full text of the bill and a summary.

Here’s just a small glimpse of what’s in it.

On asylum
- The bill raises the credible fear standard for asylum-seekers and allows those who pass that new, higher bar to receive a work permit.
- The bill requires those cases to be fully decided within 6 months. Currently, it takes years for those cases to be decided.
- It also takes into consideration whether the applicant could have moved within their own country to find safety or moved somewhere other than the United States.
New Border Emergency Authority
- The bill creates a Border Emergency Authority that requires DHS to shut down the border and immediately deport all new arrivals if Border Patrol encounters reach a one-week average of 5,000 per day.
- Below that threshold, single adults would be detained, while families would be released.
General border security provisions
- The bill provides $650 million to build and reinforce miles of new border wall.
- It ends the Biden administration’s use of the CBPOne app to facilitate parole and work authorizations.
Foreign aid

The bill would provide:
- $60.6 billion for Ukraine.
- $4.8 billion in military support for the Indo-Pacific region.
- $14.1 billion for Israel.
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Senators on both sides criticize border deal; House GOP says it’s DOA

February 5, 2024
The new Senate border deal is a 280-page makeover of the country’s asylum, work authorization, and immigration adjudication system. It has the support of President Biden, Senate leaders from both parties and House Democratic leadership. However, the bill appears to be doomed to fail after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it “dead on arrival” in his chamber, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who is in charge of scheduling votes, said it will not receive one.

“The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current administration to finally stop the illegal flow,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said in a statement.

Lankford was the principal Republican negotiator along with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

“We’re creating bold new tools to get control of the border for the first time in a long time.,” Murphy said. “But our bill does not deviate from our nation’s core values.”

Here’s just a small glimpse of what’s in it:

On asylum
- The bill raises the credible fear standard for asylum-seekers and allows those who pass that new, higher bar to receive a work permit.
- The bill requires those cases to be fully decided within 6 months. Currently, it takes years for those cases to be decided.
- It also takes into consideration whether the applicant could have moved within their own country to find safety or moved somewhere other than the United States.
New Border Emergency Authority
- The bill creates a Border Emergency Authority that requires DHS to shut down the border and immediately deport all new arrivals if Border Patrol encounters reach a one-week average of 5,000 per day.
- Below that threshold, single adults would be detained, while families would be released.
General border security provisions
- The bill provides $650 million to build and reinforce miles of new border wall.
- It ends the Biden administration’s use of the CBPOne app to facilitate parole and work authorizations.
Foreign aid

The bill would provide:
- $60.6 billion for Ukraine.
- $4.8 billion in military support for the Indo-Pacific region.
- $14.1 billion for Israel.
Here’s the full text and a summary.

In the Senate, progressives like Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., oppose the bill. Meanwhile, conservatives, including Mike Lee, R-Utah, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., are a “no,” raising questions as to whether it will receive support from half of Senate Republicans.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’s hopeful it’ll pass his chamber and had a message for Speaker Johnson.

“You know we need to fix our border, you know it has to be bipartisan. The bill that you passed didn’t get a single Democratic vote in the House or Senate, how are you going to get anything done?” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

"The [hard-right extremists] are running your show… Do the right thing. You know what the right thing to do is… You say the border is in chaos, do something about it, don't just politically posture."

— @SenSchumer has a direct message for Speaker Johnson on the border bill pic.twitter.com/vLtQOF6f0b
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) February 5, 2024

Johnson, meanwhile, is bringing forward a $14.3 billion dollar supplemental package for Israel during the week of Feb. 4.

The top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, N.Y., said Johnson’s proposal provides critical aid to Israel but “irresponsibly fails to address the other national security issue.”

“There is reason to believe that this eleventh-hour standalone bill is a cynical attempt to undermine the Senate’s bipartisan effort,” Jeffries wrote to his fellow House Democrats.

Despite that, Jeffries said House Democrats will consider supporting the measure.
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Lankford says this is what’s really in the immigration, foreign aid package

February 1, 2024
The text of the bill to provide foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and increase U.S. border security could be released at any moment. Between former President Donald Trump’s opposition and what negotiators call “rumors,” what once looked like a promising bipartisan victory now may not even get approved in one piece — if at all.

“Everyone’s going off of internet rumors,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said. “And there’s lots of things that are out there, they’re just patently false.”

Lankford, along with Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy, Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, Ariz., are the lead negotiators. They’ve been working since October to make a deal.

Lankford said the single biggest piece of misinformation is that the bill would allow 5,000 people a day to enter the U.S., at which point the border would be shut down.

“I would never agree to that,” Lankford told reporters. “It’s not 5,000 in. It’s everyone who doesn’t qualify out.”

Here’s what Lankford said is really in the bill:
1. Enhanced asylum screenings.
2. Increased migrant detention capacity.
3. Increased deportation flights.
4. An end to “catch and release.”
5. A daily cap on immigration to prevent the Border Patrol from becoming overwhelmed.
“When we get overrun, it stops all traffic and pushes it back to Mexico and says, ‘We’re not releasing you into the country, we’re turning you around until we can actually process people,’” Lankford said. “That is being completely mischaracterized.”

Although Republican support in the Senate has diminished, unanimity or near unanimity from Democrats along with about 25 Republican votes is still enough to get it approved.

“I think it’s going to be approved on the Senate side. I think the House, it’s a little more of a question mark,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said based on what he’s heard so far, it’s a “non-starter” in the House.

“I hope some of this is not true. But from what we’ve seen clearly, what’s been suggested is in this bill is not enough to secure the border,” Johnson said.

There are two issues that both get worse with time. One, lawmakers lose the political will to pass the bill in a presidential election year, and two, the need to send additional aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan increases, which may require lawmakers to act on that separately.

“The more you change the bill, the more partisan it becomes,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla said. “And at some point, instead of being bipartisan, it becomes partisan. And at some point, we have to make the decision to how much more can we give before we walk away. And I think we’re there.”

In addition to the border security provisions that House Republicans contend are too lax, some in the caucus are also opposed to sending more aid to Ukraine. However, there is still a majority in the House who support foreign aid.
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Oklahoma GOP censures Sen. James Lankford amid border bill talks

January 29, 2024
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, the Republican leading negotiations with Democrats on a southern border immigration bill has been censured by the Oklahoma Republican Party. The committee approved a resolution that condemns and censors Lankford, Saturday, Jan. 27.

The resolution and condemnation document claims that Sen. Lankford negotiated a deal to reportedly allow 5,000 undocumented immigrants a day into the U.S. for work. The numbers being cited are from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who made the claim during a press conference on Wednesday.

“This bill normalizes 5,000 people a day coming in. Five thousand a day is over 1.8 million a year,” Cruz said. “That’s called an invasion. By the way, under Joe Biden, we’ve had 9.6 million.”

Lankford called Cruz’s claim “absurd” during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“Right now, there’s Internet rumors is all that people are running on,” Lankford said. “It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day.”

“Authorizing several thousand people to invade our borders before any action can be taken is contrary to the oath that Senator Lankford took to the Constitution and therefore outside of the area that he is authorized to negotiate,” the censorship document states.

The resolution also calls on Lankford to end his “actions” or the Oklahoma Republican Party will “cease all support for him.”

“He is jeopardizing the security and liberty of the people of Oklahoma and these United States,” the resolution said.

However, not every state Republican is on board with the committee’s move.

https://twitter.com/realAJFerate/status/1751438050607923658

“Today an extreme faction of the @officialOKGOP held a meeting without providing an official call to all members of the State Committee, including me, to attack Senator @jameslankford. Any vote taken by the OKGOP today was not legitimate and definitely does not represent the voice of all Oklahoma Republicans,” Former Oklahoma GOP Chairman Anthony Ferate wrote on X.

Some Republicans have noted former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the current legislation in progress, and contend its passage could mean a victory for his political adversary, President Joe Biden.

“If Joe Biden suddenly got religion and supported a border deal that actually reduced the flow of illegal immigration, that would be good for him politically,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told CNN Thursday, Jan 18.

The censure comes as CBS News reports a bipartisan group of lawmakers in U.S. Congress is nearing a deal with the Biden administration. The bill would include dramatic changes to border control, including the ability to pause asylum processes during migrant surges, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Politico reported GOP leaders are worried that Trump allies may obstruct the border deal negotiations, creating challenges for Senate and House leaders in reaching compromises with the Biden administration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are working on negotiations with the White House.

The most recent data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows more than 300,000 encounters with migrants in December 2023. However, the report also shows Border Patrol agents saw a 50% decrease in those encounters during the first two weeks of January based on preliminary figures.
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McConnell reiterates support after risking border deal over Trump opposition

January 25, 2024
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday, Jan. 25 he still supports a border security deal that’s linked to aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. He put months of negotiations in question when, on the previous night, he said he didn’t want to do anything to undermine the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who opposes the deal.

The possibility that Donald Trump could derail a bipartisan negotiation made multiple Republicans speak out and encourage negotiators to keep moving forward. The Senate has been working nonstop since October 2023 to come up with a bipartisan agreement.

“Shocking that politics plays a role in this building, absolutely shocking. I can’t imagine that’s the case,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said sarcastically when asked for his reaction to the development.

According to Punchbowl News, McConnell told Republicans during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 24 that, “politics on this have changed” and that the time to get the border deal done may have passed. That did not sit well with many Republicans SAN spoke with Thursday.

“I think James Lankford has been working very hard to secure the southern border, to give the next president, whoever it is, more authority so that we can secure the southern border,” Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told reporters. “So anything that interrupts that negotiation, I think would be tragic.”

“The idea that someone running for president would say, ‘Please hurt the country so I can blame my opponent and help my politics’ is a shocking development,” Romney said.

The lead Democratic negotiator, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, said they have had the outlines of a deal done for several days and that more than 90% is written.

“I know there is a group of Republicans that just wants to keep this issue open, that wants to keep chaos at the border in order to exploit that politically,” Murphy told reporters. “But I still believe that there are enough Republicans to join with Democrats to do something together.”

Murphy said people could know in a matter of 24 to 48 hours whether Trump’s opposition to the deal is enough to derail it.

As lawmakers negotiate how to get aid to Israel and other allies, 49 Senators — including 46 Democrats and three independents who caucus with the Democrats — introduced an amendment to the foreign aid package to reiterate U.S. policy that there needs to be a two-state solution between Israel and Gaza.

“The pathway to peace will be a Palestinian state and the State of Israel living side by side, each recognizing the other’s security and rights to exist with a stronger economic prosperity for all,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., said.

Supporters of the amendment include lawmakers who have been unapologetically pro-Israel since the war began, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who are all Jewish.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also supports the amendment. He, too, is Jewish and is calling for the U.S. to stop sending Israel money that can be used in the war effort.
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