.ON DECEMBER 6TH Republicans declined Head of state Joe Biden's ask for $106bn of funding, a lot of it to aid branch Ukraine, on the manner that its stipulations to secure The United States's southerly boundary did certainly not go far sufficient. A team of legislators now seem to be near blowing a bipartisan deal on migration policies, thought to include more durable plans as the price of Republican assistance. Yet it looks likely to become defeated in the House of Agents. On January 14th Mike Johnson, the House speaker, pointed out that purposeful boundary reform would certainly have to hang around till a Republican politician was actually president. Yet on January 17th, after a conference with Mr Biden, he hinted that he may be open to a trade-off it goes without saying. Is one likely?