House Speaker Mike Johnson knocks Biden for ‘catastrophe’ at border during Texas visit

“This catastrophe can come to an end if the Biden administration will do its job, and they refuse to do it,” he said.

Johnson also threw cold water on the ongoing Senate negotiations for a border security bill and also said that the bill passed last year by House Republicans was what was needed to cut down the number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.

“This is not about sending more money down here, it’s about changing the policy, and the White House seems not to understand that,” Johnson said in the interview during his trip with more than 60 House Republicans to Eagle Pass, Texas.

Johnson declined to say whether he would put to a vote any bill that the Senate may come up with, while he criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough on the border.

Johnson’s border trip comes as senators are trying to hammer out a bipartisan border agreement as part of a broader funding package for Ukraine, Israel aid and border security – and it remains unclear what the speaker will do if the Senate strikes a deal.

Johnson visited Eagle Pass, Texas as the GOP conference has made the border a focal point of its criticism of Biden and his administration. CNN reported Wednesday that House Republicans are forging ahead with steps to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border.

The House’s conservative hardliners want a border bill that mirrors the Republican House-passed HR2, which Senate Democrats say is a non-starter.

The Senate negotiations over the border have been ongoing for the past several weeks as Republicans have said they will only agree to the Biden administration’s request for additional money to Ukraine if a border package is also included.

The supplemental to provide additional money for the border, Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is just one of the difficult funding challenges facing Congress in the new year, as a partial government shutdown is now less than a month away, too.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday that he wanted the Senate to reach a border deal first when asked whether Johnson should be more involved in the talks. “He’s been quite involved in the budget negotiations. On the border, since their position has been they’re not budging off H.R. 2, we want to get the Senate to come to an agreement first,” Schumer said.

Ahead of Johnson’s visit, Biden administration officials said they were “encouraged by the progress being made” in border negotiations in Congress, while highlighting a dramatic drop in border crossings this week.

On Monday, border authorities encountered around 2,500 migrants at the US southern border — a dramatic drop from mid-December when daily arrests topped 10,000, according to a senior administration official. Fewer than 500 migrants were apprehended on Monday in the Del Rio sector, which was slammed with thousands of arrivals in late December.

The White House national security supplemental request also includes $14 billion in border security, and Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to provide the funding.

“We gotta do something. They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border,” Biden said when asked by a reporter what he is going to do about the Southern border.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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