Lee urges Senate GOP colleagues to slow down Ukraine-border deal 

Senate Republican Steering Committee member Mike Lee (Utah) said he will ask Senate Republican colleagues Wednesday to adopt a resolution pledging to block any package to fund Ukraine and reform asylum policies unless they are given adequate time to review the complicated legislation and have a chance to amend it.  

At a closed-door lunch meeting Tuesday, Lee voiced his concerns about Senate Republican leaders trying to speed a deal to fund Ukraine and address the border crisis through the Senate without adequate debate.  

He argued that Senate GOP colleagues should have at least three weeks to review the legislation, citing the complexity of immigration law.

To push back against his leadership, Lee is trying to muster 41 Republicans to sign onto a pledge to block any Ukraine and border bill from moving quickly through the Senate without an opportunity to amend it.  

Lee, who presides over the weekly Steering Committee lunch, will offer a motion at Wednesday’s meeting stating, “the Senate Republican conference will oppose cloture on any supplemental spending bill containing border provisions without adequate time to review and offer and vote on floor amendments.” 

Lee plans to offer the motion at a special conference meeting Wednesday afternoon, when Republicans will discuss the status of the war in Ukraine.

The Utah senator said he didn’t get any pushback from GOP colleagues when he floated the idea Tuesday.  

“I said, if you object to that, please acknowledge now. At the time, nobody flinched. I even asked, ‘Raise your hand if you think that’s unreasonable,’” Lee recounted.  

A Republican senator who spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity, however, said that Lee’s request to hold the bill up for three weeks on the Senate floor is unreasonable and would threaten to derail the delicate compromise.  

Updated at 1:59 p.m.