Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford continued Monday to support a $118 billion Senate package designed to address the migrant crisis at the southern border and also provide additional aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies. The agreement has been roundly criticized by both senators and representatives in Lankford’s own Republican Party.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was quoted as saying, “I cannot understand how any Republican would think this was a good idea.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, repeated his assertion that the legislation was “dead on arrival” in the House, saying it was “worse than expected.”
But although passage of the measure through Congress is far from assured, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said debate would begin this week because “the overwhelming majority of senators want to get this done.”
Sen. James Lankford has pushed for a bipartisan package
Lankford, Oklahoma’s senior senator, has for months led negotiations with his Democratic Senate colleagues in the majority to develop a bipartisan border policy amid a record number of migrant encounters at the southern border. He has faced opposition from former President Donald Trump, who publicly railed against the effort , saying the proposed border deal would be worse than having no deal at all.