(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans blocked $66 billion in emergency Ukraine aid, heightening the risk US funding for the country’s war effort will run dry as a partisan stalemate over immigration policies persists in Washington. 

No Republicans supported the procedural motion to consider the bill, which failed Wednesday 49 to 51, well short of the 60 votes needed. The $111 billion national security funding package also included assistance for Israel, Taiwan and stepped-up US border enforcement.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a progressive independent, also voted against advancing the measure, in part over Israel’s war tactics in Gaza.

The failed vote clarifies that Republicans — even those who strongly support continuing aid to Kyiv — are determined to hold back aid to Ukraine unless they can extract controversial changes in immigration and border policies. Conservative Republicans have stalled fresh aid for three months.

President Joe Biden faces pressure to do more to address a surge in migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. Many newly arrived migrants have dispersed to New York, Chicago, and other cities, overwhelming resources and stirring public criticism of the White House from some Democratic mayors and other local leaders.

Biden said Wednesday he’s willing to make “significant compromises” on border policies to secure a deal on Ukraine funds, which he said are urgently needed to maintain the nation’s resistance to the Russian invasion.

“This cannot wait,” Biden said in a Wednesday address from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. “Petty, partisan, angry politics can’t get in the way of our responsibility as a leading nation in the world. And literally, the entire world is watching.”

Read More: Biden Says ‘World Is Watching’ as Ukraine Aid Stalls

Biden’s budget director warned earlier this week that the US would run out of resources to assist Ukraine by the end of the year without another aid package.

Top Democratic negotiator Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said he has been told a new GOP proposal is coming soon and that could restart talks. 

Democrats late last week retreated from the negotiations as Republicans pushed hard-line measures, including blocking asylum access for any migrants who fail to seek protection in safe countries en route to the US and expanding the president’s emergency authority to turn away asylum-seekers and other migrants as needed to maintain control of the border.

“We don’t have much time to keep negotiating off the floor if we just go around in circles, which we have done for three weeks,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. 

Democrats say they’ve suggested limiting eligibility for some asylum seekers and have made other politically uncomfortable offers.  

“Democrats are willing to meet Republicans halfway,” Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow said. “Every member of this chamber knows the stakes here.”

Senate Republican leaders have expressed confidence Congress will eventually approve Ukraine aid but say Democrats first must give more ground on the GOP’s immigration demands. 

“The question of when this gets done is still an open one,” Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said at a Punchbowl event Wednesday. “My view is it does get done.”

In addition to changes to the asylum rules, Republicans want to limit Biden’s ability to grant parole to immigrants so that they can live and work in the US while claims are adjudicated rather than be kept in overburdened detention facilities. 

House Outlook

A Senate deal is just the beginning. Getting an agreement through through the House will be harder given growing opposition to Ukraine aid among Republicans in that chamber. 

Ultraconservatives have said they could only support Ukraine aid after migrant flows across the border have been reduced, which would take some time.  

Speaker Mike Johnson, who has already frustrated hard-line Republicans in his weeks on the job, will have to decide whether to risk his job and buck his right flank by putting a bill combining Ukraine aid and border proposals up for a vote.

The Senate plans to end its work for the year on Dec. 15, but could extend the session for a week to pass a Ukraine bill, lawmakers have said. 

The House is scheduled to return from its holiday break on Jan. 9, just two weeks before the next US government shutdown deadline. Lawmakers have suggested the Ukraine aid could become embroiled in the fight to keep the government open, potentially further delaying approval.

--With assistance from Zach C. Cohen.

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