Republican Senators Insist on 72-Hour Review Period for Ukraine and Border Bill

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and nine other GOP Senators are demanding that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., give the upper chamber’s members 72 hours to review final text of the border supplemental bill before a vote, Newsmax has learned.

The Republican senators also are asking Schumer to make available Cabinet secretaries for questions about the deal, Newsmax’s Alana Austin posted on X with a copy of the group’s letter.

Senate negotiators have been working for weeks to nail down a compromise that would give aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, and also address the migrant situation at the southern border.

Ricketts, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was joined by committee Ranking Member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., as well as Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Tom Cotton R-Ark., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.

“It is crucial that we ensure border legislation is passed correctly, not just quickly,” the senators said in the Thursday letter. “We must fully understand what is in the bill, how the Biden administration will implement the bill, and how it will impact our states and local communities.”

The senators asked for 72 hours “between the text of the full national security supplemental bill being made public and the first vote on the legislation in the Senate.”

They also requested that Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials charged with the bill’s implementation be made available to answer questions in an all-Senators meeting.

“This will allow all Senators to ask questions and learn how this will impact their state,” they said.

News of the senators’ letter occurred around the same time it was learned House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told House GOP conference members that a rumored bipartisan Senate deal involving Ukraine aid and southern border policy would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.

On Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told Newsmax’s Kilmeny Duchardt that “it’s time for the president to declare a national emergency” at the southern border.

“We have a national crisis at the border,” Manchin said. “And if it’s going to be played in politics, and if you give it to the House and they start playing games with it … it’ll be never-ending.”