参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔周二表示，他将倡导共和党参议员投票反对为美国经济提供额外援助乌克兰以色列“希望最后一次表明，我们坚持对边界进行有意义的改变。”
在白宫表示急需援助的持续僵局中，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)将于周三就一项不包括边境条款的措施进行关键的程序性投票。周二早些时候，他指责共和党人因要求改变边境政策而将乌克兰援助作为人质。
2023年12月5日，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在华盛顿特区国会大厦举行的每周参议院党团午餐会后对记者发表讲话。
肯·切德诺/路透社
舒默后来告诉记者，乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基将不再参加周二下午通过Zoom与五角大楼和情报界官员举行的机密参议院简报会，因为他说，在最后一分钟“出现了一些事情”。泽连斯基已经派遣代表到国会说服参议员提供更多的援助。
国务卿安东尼·布林肯和其他政府高级官员被派往国会山游说立法者批准援助。
早些时候，数十亿美元援助计划的共和党谈判代表——俄克拉荷马州参议员詹姆斯·兰福德——表示，无论泽连斯基说什么都不会改变他的主意，让乌克兰的援助以获得更多的边境安全资金为条件。
兰克福德和他的许多共和党同事一样，表示尽管他仍然担心乌克兰的国家安全，但他的重点仍然是首先关注美国在南部边境的国家安全利益。
当被问及乌克兰总统是否会说任何会削弱他决心的话时，兰克福德回答得很生硬。
“不，”兰克福德说。“我不想轻率地说，他可以说他非常担心正在发生的俄罗斯入侵——他完全有权利这么说，也完全有能力来对我们所有人说这是非常严重的。多年来，我们一直对我们的政府说，‘什么时候我们才能真正解决我们的边界问题和我们在这里面临的问题?’"
兰克福德几周来一直在与一个两党谈判代表小组会面，试图找到一条民主党人可以接受、共和党人可以算作政策胜利的边境条款的前进道路。但是谈判在周五陷入僵局，此后进展甚微。
科罗拉多州参议员麦克·班尼是边境谈判的指定民主党谈判代表之一。他认为乌克兰局势的紧迫性将迫使谈判者继续努力。
“我不认为会谈会结束，直到乌克兰得到资助，这是我的信念，”贝内特说。“我认为这并不奇怪，我们已经到了将在白宫和参议院的最高级别进行谈判的地步。”
"...我们将无法通过它，”伯奈特说。“然后，人们将不得不削尖他们的铅笔，用接下来的一周时间来谈判一项协议，以保持美国不仅对乌克兰，而且对全世界民主国家的承诺。”
伊利诺伊州参议员迪克·德宾。参议院民主党二号人物说，需要有一个“人们记录在案的时候，我们必须明白时间是至关重要的。”
共和党人表示，他们希望通过坚决阻止该法案的推进，向民主党人展示他们对边境条款的严肃态度，并迫使谈判者回到谈判桌前。
“所以当它出现时，我认为这将是一次失败的投票，但我们仍然会互相看着对方，说我们必须能够解决所有这些问题，仅仅有一次失败的投票和互相看着对方是没有帮助的，”兰克福德说。“我们实际上必须坐下来完成工作，才能完成这项工作。”
Senate Republicans hold firm in face of last-minute White House push for Ukraine aid
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will advocate Republican senators vote against advancing additional aid forUkraineand Israel "to make the point, hopefully for the final time, that we insist on meaningful changes to the border."
In a continuing standoff over the aid the White House says is urgently needed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set a key procedural vote for Wednesday on a measure that includes no border provisions. He earlier on Tuesday accused Republicans of taking Ukraine aid hostage over their demands for changes to border policy.
Schumer later told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would no longer attend a classified Senate briefing with the Pentagon and intelligence community officials Tuesday afternoon via Zoom because, he said, something "came up" at the last minute. Zelenskyy has dispatched deputies to the Hill to persuade senators to provide more aid.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top administration officials were deployed to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to approve the aid.
Earlier, a Republican negotiator on a multibillion-dollar aid package -- Oklahoma Sen. James Langford -- said there would be nothing Zelenskyy could say that would change his mind abut making Ukraine aid contingent on getting more money for border security.
Lankford, like many of his GOP colleagues, said while he remains concerned about Ukraine's national security, his focus remains trained first on U.S. national security interests at the southern border.
Lankford was curt when asked if the Ukrainian president could say anything that would weaken his resolve.
"No," Lankford said. "I don't mean to say that flippantly, for him to be able to say he is very worried about a Russian invasion that is happening -- he has every right to be able to say that and every ability to be able to come and speak to all of us and say this is really serious. We have said for years to our administration, 'When is the moment we are actually going to deal with our border and with the issues that we are facing here?'"
Lankford has been meeting with a bipartisan group of negotiators for weeks, trying to find a path forward on border provisions that Democrats could stomach, and Republicans could count as policy wins. But talks hit an impasse on Friday, and little progress has been made since.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., one of the designated Democratic negotiators on border talks. said he believes the urgency of the situation in Ukraine will force negotiators to press on.
"I don't think the talks are ever going to end until Ukraine is funded, that's what I believe," Bennet said. "I think it's not surprising that we're getting to a point where this is going to be negotiated at the highest level at the White House and here in the Senate as well."
"... We are going to fail to pass it," Bennet said. "And then people are going to have to sharpen their pencils and spend the next week negotiating a deal that keeps American's commitment not just to Ukraine but to democracies around the world."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said there needs to come a time when "people are on the record and we've got to understand that time is of the essence."
Republicans said they hope that by resolutely blocking the bill from advancing, they'll show Democrats how serious they are about getting their border provisions, and force negotiators back to the table.
"So when it comes up I think it'll be a failed vote, but we're still going to look at each other and say we've got to be able to solve all of these problems and it's not going to help by just having a failed vote and looking at each other," Lankford said. "We've actually got to sit down and finish the work to be able to get this done."
