There is some appetite in the House to leverage a vote on Title 42 restrictions at the nation's border with a vote on $33 billion the Biden administration has requested for Ukraine, but "they are not and should not be tied together," Rep. Pete Sessions said on Newsmax Saturday.
"Both of these are important issues and both need a vote," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda," adding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., will "make that call" as she is "trying to get both of them done so that she can blame anyone that does not agree with her to take responsibility for the loss."
Pelosi said Wednesday that the House may vote next week on giving Ukraine the $33 billion.
There are also calls from Democrats to leverage a stalled $10 billion coronavirus package with the Ukraine aid, notes The Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and some Senate Republicans had previously reached the deal on the COVID package, but then Republicans demanded the vote on Title 42, the public health policy put into play under former President Donald Trump to allow migrants to be turned away quickly at the border.
Keeping Title 42 at the border is vital to controlling the immigrant situation, Sessions said on Newsmax.
"They are trying to run 4 million people through our border in two years and they are well on target to get that done," he said. "It's illegal —people who are bringing in an untold amount of drugs ... but the biggest thing I think that we're getting ready to find out is this resurgence of COVID. How has that happened in our largest cities? I believe it comes in from people who came in who are sick."
Sessions added that he has been told by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that Schumer is blocking a vote on the Title 42 legislation, but he does think there are Democrats who would vote to keep it in place "at least until a more comprehensive plan is revealed by the Department of Homeland Security."
Meanwhile, "midterm COVID, which is exactly the new name that I'm going [with]," will have a "dramatic impact on what people think about not just Title 42, but people coming in this country," said Sessions.
The congressman also spoke out against the Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance board.
"What [Alejandro] Mayorkas is trying to do is respond back to all the flak that the president and Speaker Pelosi are taking for the things that they have done and the effects that have occurred," said Sessions.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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