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US suffers record number of suicides in 2022, data shows

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The U.S. recorded a record high number of suicides in 2022, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Nearly 50,000 Americans chose to take their own lives last year, with the vast majority of those being men. The NCHS warned that the current numbers are provisional, and the true statistics are likely to rise. By gender, men saw 23.1 suicides per 100,000 population, while women saw 5.9 suicides per 100,000. The average rate for all Americans was 14.3 per 100,000, the highest recorded since 1941. SUICIDE PREVENTION PROGRAM AT NEBRASKA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL EMPHASIZES ENCOURAGING, ‘LIFE-SAVING’ NOTES The new data arrives just days after a Department of Veterans Affairs report found a spike in suicides among the nation’s service members. Veteran suicides saw a spike of 11.6% between 2020 and 2021, totaling 6,392 suicides in 2021 alone, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs’ suicide report released this month. SUICIDE RATES REACH ALL-TIME HIGH IN US, PER CDC DATA “It’s a disturbing trend that after going down for two years, we saw spike,” Cole Lyle, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and executive director of Mission Roll Call, told Fox News Digital on Monday. “After COVID and the Afghanistan withdrawal … it’s probably not surprising that we saw an increase in veteran suicide.” “Anecdotally, we saw a lot of evidence that both of those events were negatively impacting the mental health in the veterans community and suicide rates,” he added. “I mean, personally, I had to talk a few friends down off the ledge during the Afghanistan withdrawal crisis, so I don’t think anybody necessarily is surprised by this increase. But, it is tragic and there are seemingly simple things that we could do to at least try to reverse this trend.” YOUNG WOMAN IS TALKED OUT OF SUICIDE BY A PASSERBY, AN OFF-DUTY PARAMEDIC: ‘ARE YOU OK?’ A shocking survey in October found that 36% of young adults ages 18-34 stated that they had contemplated suicide at some point over the past year. Despite that, less than a third (32%) strongly agreed that they can recognize the warning signs of someone potentially at risk, while just four in 10 people (43%) are strongly aware of resources that offer support and information on suicide prevention, the poll by CVS Health in Rhode Island found. Fox News’ Kendall Tietz and Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.

House Republicans roll out ‘one-stop shop’ Biden impeachment inquiry website

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are launching a “one-stop shop” website for all things related to the impeachment inquiry against President Biden on Wednesday so that the American people can “see the clear corruption that Joe Biden and his family have committed,” Fox News Digital has learned.  The website, GOP.gov/Bidenimpeachmentinquiry, will highlight the work of the committees leading the effort — the House committees on Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways & Means — and will include summaries of their findings to date, along with supporting “key evidence.” A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that the website will be a “one-stop shop” for Americans.  “House Republicans investigations have uncovered what I believe will be the greatest political corruption scandal of my lifetime. House Republicans will continue to follow the facts and uncover evidence of vast corruption committed by Joe Biden and his family,” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. “Here are the facts: Joe Biden directly financially benefited from his family’s corrupt influence peddling scheme, the Biden family repeatedly attempted to sell access to Joe Biden to the highest bidder, including our foreign adversaries, Joe Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people about his involvement and knowledge of his family’s corrupt influence peddling scheme.”  “Today, House Republicans are unveiling a website for the American people to provide them with transparency and allow them to see the clear corruption that Joe Biden and his family have committed,” she said.  HOUSE OVERSIGHT SUBPOENAS HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN, ROB WALKER FOR TESTIMONY AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY The website includes the House Oversight Committee’s interactive timeline of the Biden family’s alleged “influence peddling,” dating back to President Biden’s time as vice president during the Obama administration. That timeline includes a breakdown of business dealings with China-linked companies, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. That timeline also has a feature dedicated to the federal criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.  The website also includes a “photos” section, which features images of checks written to Joe Biden, photos of the president with his son’s business associates like Devon Archer and more.  House Republicans also invite visitors of the website to sign up with their email addresses to “get the latest impeachment inquiry updates.” House Republicans also use the website to break down the impeachment inquiry “by the numbers.” That section says that lawmakers have found at least $240,000 in direct payments to Biden and have issued 20 subpoenas. The committee, last month, subpoenaed Hunter Biden, the president’s brother, James Biden, and requested transcribed interviews from a number of other Biden family members.  “House Republicans are committed to delivering the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve. Our investigation has unearthed evidence revealing how Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from his family’s corrupt business schemes,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital. “House Republicans’ new website ensures this information is accessible to the American people.” Comer, in September, subpoenaed personal and business bank records belonging to both Hunter Biden and James Biden. Comer said those subpoenaed bank records revealed that President Biden himself received $40,000 in “laundered China money” from a bank account belonging to James Biden and Sara Biden. The $40,000 check had a memo line reading “loan repayment.” Subpoenaed financial records also revealed that Joe Biden received a “$200,000 direct payment” in 2018 in the form of a “personal check” from James Biden and Sara Biden. That check was also labeled “loan repayment.” WEISS SAYS HE ‘WASN’T GRANTED’ SPECIAL ATTORNEY AUTHORITY IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE DESPITE REQUEST: TRANSCRIPT The White House has repeatedly blasted the impeachment inquiry as an “evidence-free” investigation. Hunter Biden is set to appear for a deposition behind closed doors on Dec. 13, despite offers to testify publicly. The committees have also heard testimony from DOJ officials involved in Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden.  “President Biden and his administration have continually changed their stories about President Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence-peddling schemes and business deals,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital. “House Republicans are ready to deliver transparency and accountability to the American people.” SPEAKER JOHNSON: BIDEN ENGAGING IN ‘COVER-UP’ OF ROLE IN HUNTER BUSINESS DEALINGS, IMPEACHMENT PROBE CONTINUES The impeachment inquiry is being led by Comer, Jordan and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo. and began under the leadership of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Newly-minted House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is fully behind the effort.  Republicans are focused several avenues of investigation, including the Biden family’s business dealings and whether the president was involved. The lawmakers are also investigating allegations of political misconduct and politics influencing prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal investigation into Hunter Biden. 

New pro-DeSantis group brings on aide from former 2024 rival to lead Iowa effort: report

A former adviser for the now-defunct presidential campaign of Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is reportedly running a new effort in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa.  Politico first reported that Blake Harris, who served most recently as senior political adviser to Scott, is expected to run the super PAC Fight Right.  Scott dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest on Nov. 12. Last week, Fight Right kicked off a $980,000 television ad buy, concentrating on airing ads in Iowa targeting former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who is polling narrowly behind DeSantis’s No. 2 position in the first caucus state. Former President Trump is still polling first – ahead of DeSantis by a double-digit margin.  One ad compares Haley to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHETHER DESANTIS’ IOWA STRATEGY WILL BE ENOUGH TO TOPPLE TRUMP: ‘HAIL MARY’ Politico also reported about alleged infighting at the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down regarding how to best prevent Haley from gaining ground before the Jan. 15 caucuses after the Florida governor already spent most of the summer focusing campaign efforts on Iowa.  Never Back Down transferred $1 million to Fight Right before its first ad buy, a source told the outlet, and DeSantis met personally in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday with potential donors for Fight Right. With primary voting set to begin in less than two months, the two political action committees are slated to work alongside each other and share the “same objective,” the source said. In a Monday memo first reported by ABC News, DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier told potential donors that he “welcomes the independent efforts” of Fight Right, which was formed this month, and which he said will focus on providing “welcome air support” for the governor. Never Back Down, which Uthmeier deemed “the largest Iowa turnout machine in history,” will focus on groundwork for DeSantis.  HALEY, DESANTIS OR TRUMP? WHO WILL TOP-DOLLAR DONORS BACKING TIM SCOTT SUPPORT NEXT IN 2024 GOP RACE Meanwhile, Haley’s presidential campaign on Tuesday received a key endorsement from Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the powerful Koch network, which has been building a network of paid conservative activists and volunteers in key states for several years, according to the Associated Press.  Back in the spring, the Koch network began running ads across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — the first three states on the GOP’s presidential primary calendar — focusing on questions about Trump’s electability in next fall’s general election against President Biden. Still, Trump remains the overwhelming front-runner in the race. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed Americans for Prosperity as “the political arm of the China-first, America-last movement.” In a statement, DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo likened the Koch endorsement to a contribution to the Trump campaign. “Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement. Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president,” Romeo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different.” The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Ohio governor, lieutenant governor ordered to appear in court in connection to FirstEnergy bribery scandal

Ohio’s governor and lieutenant governor have been drawn into a FirstEnergy Corp. investors lawsuit connected to the $60 million bribery scheme concocted by the Akron-based energy giant and a now-incarcerated House speaker. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine received a subpoena for documents in the case dated Nov. 17, according to a copy provided to The Associated Press by his office on Tuesday and first reported by cleveland.com. His spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said the governor’s lawyers are reviewing the order. It seeks any communications DeWine might have had with FirstEnergy, executives named in the lawsuit or Sam Randazzo, the state’s former top utility regulator, that related to former House Speaker Larry Householder’s efforts to secure power, to the tainted $1 billion nuclear bailout legislation Householder championed in exchange for the bribes, and to a host of other related topics. OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON ABORTION GOES ‘WAY, WAY TOO FAR,’ EVEN FARTHER THAN ROE: GOV. DEWINE OHIO JUDGE PUTS MASSIVE GOP-BACKED EDUCATION OVERHAUL ON HOLD Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, also a Republican, received a similar subpoena on the same date — and, according to a court filing Monday, is scheduled to be deposed in the case sometime between Feb. 28 and March 19. “We’re aware of the civil investor lawsuit against FirstEnergy,” Husted spokesperson Hayley Carducci said in an email. “The Lt. Governor has already provided public records pertaining to this, and we will continue to comply as we have done in the past. There’s no new information to disclose.” The civil lawsuit is distinct from a separate, ongoing criminal case, in which Householder, lobbyist Matt Borges and two others have been convicted. A fifth man charged died by suicide in 2021. Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Borges received five. Tierney said no one in the DeWine administration has ever been subpoenaed or identified as under investigation in the criminal probe. Nor has Randazzo, the governor’s pick for the powerful chairmanship of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, whose Columbus townhome was searched by the FBI in November 2020. As chair of the commission, Randazzo held immense sway over the fortunes of FirstEnergy and other investor-owned utilities. OHIO LT. GOV BLASTS MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER FOR ‘UNREASONABLE, IRRESPONSIBLE’ EFFORT TO SHUT DOWN OIL PIPELINE During his confirmation hearing for the job, he testified before a state Senate committee that he was asked before DeWine and Husted took office on Jan. 14, 2019, to forgo plans to retire to Naples, Florida, where he owned an expensive waterfront home, and to return to government at the utility commission. He specified during the confirmation hearing that Husted and Laurel Dawson, DeWine’s then-chief of staff, were among those who helped recruit him. DeWine disregarded cries of alarm from consumer and environmental advocates at the time, as well as pleas from GOP insiders concerned about Randazzo’s selection, the AP first reported in December 2020. When he was Ohio House speaker in 2007, Husted appointed Randazzo to the Public Utilities Commission Nominating Council and the two were allies in thwarting renewable and alternative energy mandates proposed by then-Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and opposed by a coalition of utilities led by FirstEnergy.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court debates future of impeachment trial for Philadelphia Prosecutor Larry Krasner

Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday weighed whether the Legislature can proceed with an impeachment trial against Philadelphia’s elected progressive prosecutor and whether the court or lawmakers should determine what qualifies as misbehavior in office. What the justices decide after oral arguments in the Supreme Court chambers in Harrisburg will determine the future of efforts to remove District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, on claims he should have prosecuted some minor crimes, his bail policies and how he has managed his office. Krasner was impeached by the state House in November 2022, a year after he was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term, sending the matter to the state Senate for trial. PHILADELPHIA DA LARRY KRASNER IMPEACHED BY PENNSYLVANIA LAWMAKERS IN GOP-LED EFFORT: ‘CRISIS OF CRIME’ PROGRESSIVE DA WILL INVESTIGATE IF PHILLY RIOTERS ARE ‘FUNDAMENTALLY LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE’ BEFORE PROSECUTION Justice Kevin Brobson, one of the two Republicans on the bench Tuesday, questioned why the court should get involved at this point and suggested the Senate may not get the two-thirds majority necessary to convict and remove Krasner from office. “Just as I would not want the General Assembly to stick its nose into a court proceeding, I am shy about whether it makes sense, constitutionally, jurisprudentially, for us at this stage to stick our noses” into the impeachment process, he said. Justice Christine Donohue, among the four Democratic justices at the hearing, said she was not comfortable delving “into the weeds” of what the impeachable offenses were, but indicated it should be up to the Supreme Court to define misbehavior in office, the grounds for removal. “It would go through the Senate once we define what misbehavior in office means, whatever that is, and then it would never come back again because then there would be a definition of what misbehavior in office is,” she said. Another Democrat, Justice David Wecht, seemed to chafe at an argument by lawyers for the two Republican House members managing the impeachment trial that lawmakers should determine what constitutes misbehavior. “It’s not just akin to indicting a ham sandwich,” Wecht said. He went on to say, “They could have totally different ham sandwiches in mind.” “I mean, it’s whatever the House wakes up to today and what they have for breakfast and then they bring impeachment. And then tomorrow the Senate wakes up and they think of the polar opposite as what any misbehavior means,” Wecht said. PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE REPUBLICANS ANNOUNCE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST PHILADELPHIA DA LARRY KRASNER Krasner has dismissed the House Republicans’ claims as targeting his policies, and a lower court issued a split ruling in the matter. A panel of lower-court judges rejected two of Krasner’s challenges — that the opportunity for a trial died along with the end last year’s session and that as a local official he could not be impeached by the General Assembly. But it agreed with him that the impeachment articles do not meet the state constitution’s definition of misbehavior in office. Krasner’s appeal seeks reconsideration of the Commonwealth Court’s decision. The Republican representatives who spearheaded the impeachment and the GOP-controlled Senate leadership also appealed, arguing that impeachment proceedings exist outside of the rules of lawmaking and could continue into a new legislative session. Krasner, as a district attorney, gets state funding and that distinguishes him from purely local officials, they argued.

Top Oversight Democrat slams GOP for keeping Hunter Biden hearing out of public view

House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., slammed committee Republicans for refusing Hunter Biden’s request for a public hearing on Dec. 13, when Biden will appear for a closed-door deposition. In a statement Tuesday, Raskin called the Republicans’ actions an “epic humiliation” and said their hesitancy to let the president’s son give public testimony is “a frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it.  “Let me get this straight,” Raskin said. “After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose?” HUNTER BIDEN AGREES TO HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE TESTIMONY Earlier Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and offered to let the president’s son appear before the committee, with C-SPAN cameras rolling, and answer lawmakers’ questions about his family’s business dealings. The letter came in answer to a subpoena issued by Comer for Hunter Biden and his family members and business associates to sit for a closed-door deposition as part of the GOP-led investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.  “We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Lowell wrote. “If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let light shine on the proceedings.”  HOUSE GOP SUBPOENAS DOJ PROSECUTOR WHO ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO SHIELD BIDEN DURING FEDERAL PROBE INTO SON HUNTER In reply, Comer accused Biden of “trying to play by his own rules” and rejected his request to testify publicly on Dec. 13. However, the chairman agreed that Biden “should have the opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date.”  No future hearing has yet been scheduled.  BIDEN’S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN House Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden to examine evidence and allegations that Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s positions in government to make unethical business deals with foreign partners, from which President Biden allegedly received payouts. But at the first public inquiry hearing, GOP witnesses said there was not yet enough evidence to prove the president committed an impeachable offense.  Raskin said Republicans won’t schedule a public hearing for Hunter Biden to testify because it would expose how their case against his father is weak.  “After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in,” he said.  “The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense. Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again. What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.”  Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Pennsylvania Rep. Craig Williams enters 2024 race for attorney general

A state lawmaker who is helping lead the effort to impeach Philadelphia’s elected prosecutor on Tuesday became the newest candidate for Pennsylvania attorney general, an office that played a critical role in court defending Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential battleground. Rep. Craig Williams, a Republican who represents part of suburban Philadelphia, has said for months that he planned to run for the state’s top law enforcement office in 2024. Williams, a former federal prosecutor and former U.S. Marine Corps pilot and prosecutor, is the third Republican to declare his candidacy. REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS FILE APPEAL REGARDING THE LEGALITY OF THE PA LEGISLATURE’S IMPEACHMENT OF LARRY KRASNER COURT REJECTS PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSHIP’S BAN OF ‘THIN BLUE LINE’ FLAG AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL In an announcement video, Williams says, “I’m running for attorney general because I know how to deal with violence. … I fought the bad guys on the battlefield and I beat them in the courtroom.” Democrats are facing a five-way primary for an office that will be open after next year. Williams is a second-term member of the state House who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008, losing by 20 percentage points to then-U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak. He spent about a decade as a lawyer for Philadelphia-area electric and gas utility Peco Energy Co., an Exelon Corp. subsidiary, before running for the Legislature. As a freshman lawmaker, he became one of two House Republicans tapped to lead the impeachment of Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney, Larry Krasner. The process is tied up in court, with Krasner challenging it as a political impeachment based on policy disagreements, not credible evidence of wrongdoing in office. Williams, 58, born in Alabama, got his law degree at the University of Florida. The attorney general’s office has a budget of about $140 million annually and plays a prominent role in arresting drug traffickers, fighting gun trafficking, defending state laws in court and protecting consumers from predatory practices. The office also defended the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election against repeated attempts to overturn it in state and federal courts by Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican allies. The two other Republicans who have announced their candidacies are York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and former federal prosecutor Katayoun Copeland. The Democrats running are Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, state Rep. Jared Solomon of Philadelphia, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers. No Republican has been elected attorney general since 2008. Candidates must file paperwork by Feb. 13 to appear on the April 23 primary ballot. The current officeholder, Michelle Henry, is filling the last two years of Gov. Josh Shapiro ‘s second term as attorney general and doesn’t plan to run for the office. Shapiro nominated Henry, his top deputy, in January when he was sworn in as governor.

How one man’s open records obsession sparked a fight over transparency and power in East Texas

Once a tool of journalists and concerned citizens to hold government accountable, open records requests have been increasingly used by political opponents and conspiracy theorists to slow down the pace of government.

Despite strong economy, Texas cities grapple with excess office space

As remote and hybrid working become the new normal, major Texas cities are facing a decline in office tenants. It’s too soon to tell what that means for the vitality of downtowns.

Sen. Rick Scott says Schumer likely doesn’t have votes to pass supplemental without tighter border security

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., likely doesn’t have the votes to pass President Biden’s $106 billion national security supplemental package as is, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday evening.  Senate Republicans have been rallying behind adding stricter border security provisions in the package, such as more border patrol agents and tougher asylum processing standards. But Democrats have signaled they’re not interested in changing border policies. “There’s going to have to be significant border security,” Scott, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said. “The border is a clear and present danger to the security of every American, and I think every Republican and hopefully some Democrats understand that.”  The question, Scott said, revolves around whether Republicans will opt for straightforward modifications, expecting Biden to adhere to the law, or whether Ukraine aid could be contingent upon a decrease in border crossings. SCHUMER TO SEND BIDEN’S $106 BILLION SUPPLEMENTAL PACKAGE REQUEST TO SENATE FLOOR AS EARLY AS NEXT WEEK “We will have to have something that is really tied to really reducing the number of people crossing the border, and this can’t be a small reduction. We need to reduce it the way Trump was able to reduce it,” Scott said. “The only way we’re going to get a result is if we will not give Ukraine money unless it’s completely tied on a month-to-month basis to a reduction in number of people crossing the border. That’s the only way it’s going to work, and I believe that’s where everybody’s going to be.” BIDEN ADMIN URGES MAJOR FUNDING INCREASES FOR AID TO UKRAINE, ISRAEL AND GAZA CIVILIANS  Schumer would need nine Republicans to vote alongside Democrats for the package to make it out of the Senate. Scott said no one is objecting to stronger border measures among the GOP. The package could get a vote as early as next week.  Democrats in the upper chamber have a 51-49 majority, and any legislation will need at least 60 votes to advance. Any agreement will need to pass the GOP-controlled House before it makes it to Biden’s desk. Schumer will bring the Biden administration’s $106 billion national security funding request to the floor for a vote as early as next week, Schumer said in a Dear Colleague letter Sunday night.  The White House’s supplemental request, which was sent to Congress in October, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for some border security provisions and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there’s $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza. The supplemental request only proposes more money to speed up processing of migrants but no policy reforms.  In a press conference Tuesday, Schumer deflected blame and said “a handful of Republicans have dangerously tried to link Ukraine aid” to border security. Negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators continued over the Thanksgiving recess, and Schumer told reporters, “Republicans are making it difficult” for a bipartisan aid bill.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have both signaled the GOP will pass more Ukraine funding if a deal is struck for tighter immigration laws. Fox News Digital has reached out to Schumer’s office and the White House for comment.