Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., slammed the Senate’s bipartisan border deal hours after the upper chamber released text of the long-awaited agreement, writing that it is “even worse than we expected” and declaring it “dead on arrival” in the House.
“I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes,’” Johnson wrote on X.
“If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival,” he added.
The scathing statement from Johnson jives with comments he made in the lead-up to the Senate releasing the text of its deal — he previously said that if the contents of the legislation were similar to what reports had speculated, it would be dead on arrival in the House.
Shortly before Johnson’s statement, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., — who oversees the schedule in the lower chamber — said the Senate bill “will NOT receive a vote in the House.”
Johnson’s announcement deals a major blow to the trio of Senator negotiators, who for months had worked towards striking a deal on the politically prickly matter of border security. Republicans had insisted that any aid for Ukraine be paired with legislation to address the southern border.
In recent weeks, however, as negotiators were closing in on a deal, Republicans had grown cold to the bipartisan talks, arguing that President Joe Biden has the tools at his disposal to address the situation at the southern border — and does not need new legislation from Congress. They also faced pressure from former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, who urged against a border deal unless Republicans “get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people.”