WASHINGTON — Wisconsinites gathered in a quaint restaurant Thursday to hear from Congressman Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, about the biggest stories on Capitol Hill. That includes a budget deal that congressional leaders released overnight.
“The good news is, it looks like by the end of the week, we're going to be able to A, prevent a shutdown, and B, fund the government… from what was due six months ago, and then we’ll be on to the fight for fiscal year ‘25,” Steil said.
Steil said Congress’ spending process is “completely broken,” and Washington could learn a lesson from the Wisconsin legislature, which writes a budget every two years and automatically funds the government at the previous year’s level if there’s no agreement. Part of the new federal budget deal would increase detention bed capacity and funding for border patrol agents at the border.
“Now, the homeland border security provisions in the spending bill are a step in the right direction, but they are by no means – by no means are they as sufficient as President Biden changing his mind,” Steil told Spectrum News.
Many Republicans say President Joe Biden could address the surge of migrants entering the U.S. by bringing back some Trump-era policies, such as construction of a border wall and resuming a policy requiring people seeking asylum to “Remain in Mexico” until their cases are decided. Presuming Congress passes the budget bills this week, Steil expects the conversation to shift to Ukraine and Israel. The Senate already approved $95 billion in foreign aid, but House Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t bring it to the floor.
Steil said providing weapons to Ukraine and Israel is in the interest of U.S. national security. To avoid adding to the nation’s debt, he suggests Congress could pay for the assistance by using the interest from Russian state assets that have been frozen in the U.S. in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia could fund the weapons that are being utilized to remove Russian equipment. I don't think that's a terrible idea,” Steil said.
Steil wouldn’t commit to requiring new security measures at the southern U.S. border in return for approving aid for Ukraine and Israel, as some Republicans had demanded earlier this year.
“In an ideal situation, I just don't know what the bill is that will come before the House,” Steil said.
Several members of the UW-Madison community attended Steil’s chat, including junior Andreas Scocus, who said he appreciated the Congressman’s concern about rising costs for Wisconsin residents.
“Being in Madison, the housing market for students, especially, it's very expensive up there. There's not a lot of units sometimes,” he said. “So, that's probably the biggest one for me.”
Steil is up for reelection in November but didn’t seem worried about the race, since he is in a safely Republican district and the Democrats seeking his seat are relatively unknown. And for President? Steil said he’ll back Donald Trump over Joe Biden.