US Senate is still negotiating the border; Senator Cramer talks about the most recent

Bismarck, North Dakota – While the House was on recess this week, the U.S. Senate continued to negotiate border security measures on Capitol Hill.

Senators engaged in the negotiations are leaning toward all available possibilities to move legislation on this matter forward, even though a final agreement has not been achieved. Nevertheless, it appears that this will carry on for weeks to come.

While there is no bill language yet, Senator Kevin Cramer notes that there have been some substantial agreements reached during the ongoing border security negotiations. According to him, one of the most important agreements reached was a modification of the criteria for asylum, namely the notion of credible fear, which will make the process far more challenging for applicants.

“Eliminating that broad stroke of humanitarian parole, which has allowed the president to go from 5,000 to a couple of million people that are just paroled into the country,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota.

Negotiators alluded to a potential bipartisan bill on Friday, and President Biden declared he would sign it should it reach his desk. Numerous Republicans declared that if this were to become a factor, they would not support it. According to Cramer, some members may be against this kind of arrangement because they feel it falls short.

“When the window opens, when you have a moment where you have a divided government and you have a Biden president, who is really the cause of all of this chaos, willing to sign a bill that gets us part of the way there, maybe two-thirds of the way to where we want to be, I think you have to take a hard look at that,” said Cramer.

In the ongoing border talks, former President Trump is also involved. This week, he advised members not to cast votes on a bipartisan bill should one arise. Even though the previous president is no longer in office, many Republicans continue to listen to him.

“I think because he speaks for how a lot of them feel and you can’t ignore that. The other thing is he persuades a lot of people, not just members of Congress, but more importantly the people that the members of Congress work for,” said Cramer.

Regarding a potential bipartisan border agreement, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson previously stated that it would fail in the House.

“If in fact he believes what we know about the bill is dead on arrival without knowing the other things, that’s unfortunate, but the only way to know if a bill is dead on arrival is to put it on the floor, and he has the power to do that,” said Cramer.

Senator Cramer believes that while attention appears to be solely focused on the border, it’s also critical to comprehend the extra aid package intended for Ukraine and other nations.

“You have aide to Ukraine, aide to Israel, aide to Taiwan, and most of it really is aide to the United States military, replenishing stockpiles that have been depleted by Army, particularly the Ukrainians. So, there is a lot to that,” said Cramer.

Before anything is decided, according to Cramer, there is still more work to be done.

In addition, he expresses optimism that they will receive a bill text about the negotiations next week; nevertheless, he notes that the week will be short because of events in Washington. He claims that lawmakers will need to spend at least a week to evaluate this kind of legislation and issue after the language is finalized.