Fox News host Bret Baier told Arizona Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema on Monday that the recent border bill was “painful to get through,” after she stated that she was a co-author.
Sinema appeared on “Special Report with Bret Baier” to discuss the new $118 billion Senate border security bill, called the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. The bill’s text was released Sunday night, and Republican lawmakers immediately criticized the deal. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House if it passes in the Senate. (RELATED: Senate Releases Long-Awaited Text Of Bipartisan Border Security Bill)
After discussing her support for the deal, Baier asked Sinema if she had “read the whole thing.” The Arizona senator replied that she had not only read it but had it “close to memorized.”
“I have read this bill and, Senator, have you read the whole thing?” Baier questioned.
“Well, I got to tell you, Bret, I wrote it. So, yes, I have. In fact, I’ve got it pretty close to memorized,” Sinema stated.
Baier told Sinema that the bill had been “painful to get through,” and the Arizona senator laughed in agreement. (RELATED: Senate Border Bill Would Hand $1.4 Billion To NGOs Helping Illegal Migrants)
“Yeah, it’s painful to get through,” Baier said.
“It was,” Sinema laughed. “So Senator Lankford and Senator Murphy and I worked together on this legislation for the last four months. And as an independent, who is neither Republican or a Democrat, my office was entrusted in holding the pen, so to speak. But the three of us worked on this as a consensus document. We don’t all love everything in the package, but we all agree to everything in this package.”
The border security deal comes after Johnson said that House Republicans would not consider additional funding to Ukraine unless the southern border crisis was also addressed.
Before the release of the texts, reports circulated that Republicans had become concerned with potential issues in the bill leaving alleged legal loopholes for illegal immigrants. The over 300-page deal bundles aid to both Ukraine and Israel into the border security reforms. The bill would commit roughly $48 billion to Ukraine, almost $16 billion to Israel, and $20.2 billion to U.S. border security, according to Reuters.