WASHINGTON — President Biden's $106 billion supplemental package for aid to Ukraine and Israel is facing a new hurdle.
Some Republicans in Congress say they'll vote against the package if there is no funding for U.S. border security attached to the measure.
At the Pentagon Tuesday, Spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder urged support for the bill.
"The supplemental request must be passed to fund our critical national security requirements to stand by our partners in their moment of need," he said.
Among the House Republicans making the call for tying new U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel to border security is Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia, 2nd District).
"Very important that we balance that with border security before we are allotting any more money to protect other countries. We've got to look out for our own. So that's where the Republican House majority's ask will be, that any aid package includes funding for border security," she said in an interview with 13News Now.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wants to include provisions of H.R. 2 in the supplemental aid package.
It would resume the hundreds of miles of construction of a border wall, strip funding from nonprofits that aid migrants, beef up staffing of Border Patrol agents and restrict the use of humanitarian parole programs.
That measure already passed earlier this year in the House but, it stalled in the Senate.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, any supplemental package that lacks border policy changes "stands zero chance of becoming law."