Congress devolves into chaos over border and national security funding

After months of stalling an international aid package for Ukraine and Israel in favor of tougher border policy, top Republicans are calling for a standalone international aid package because they now oppose the addition of stricter border policy they demanded.

A bipartisan Senate package that paired border security measures with assistance to Israel and Ukraine appeared all but dead Tuesday, after Republicans backed away from the deal amid growing criticism from the right.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who on Monday urged his colleagues to support the package, had shifted dramatically by Tuesday.

"It looks to me and to most of our members that we have no real chance here to make a law," McConnell told reporters.

The bill in question was specifically crafted to meet GOP demands that Democrats link border policy changes to President Biden's request for military aid to Israel and Ukraine. But by Monday night, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the top Republican negotiator on the Senate deal, was predicting that a procedural vote on the package would fail this week.

"We are trying to figure out what to do next," Lankford told reporters in the Capitol. "People are saying, 'Hey, we need a lot more time to go through this.'"

The deal began to unravel after former President Donald Trump publicly trashed it and House GOP leaders proclaimed it "dead on arrival." The failure of the package — which includes roughly $20 billion for border provisions and raises the threshold to meet asylum claims — would cast doubt on Congress' ability to get anything done on border security or foreign assistance between now and Election Day.

The chaos over the border is the latest collapse for one of the least productive congressional