WASHINGTON Senate Republicans are flailing over how to proceed with tackling the border crisis an issue they have been demanding action on after Donald Trump this week personally directed them to reject any bipartisan border deal because he doesnt want President Joe Biden to get a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans have been hammering Biden for months over the massive surge of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. They have insisted that border policy changes be attached to a broader package of aid for Ukraine and Israel. So, for months, a bipartisan group of senators has been attempting to craft legislation that includes all of these pieces.

That package is extremely close to being done and will be ready for a Senate floor vote as early as next week, a Senate source familiar with negotiations told HuffPost on Thursday.

All thats left to do is tying up the loose ends and finishing the appropriations, said this Senate source, who requested anonymity due to the extremely delicate nature of talks.

This is down to a political decision for Republicans as to whether they want to solve this problem, or whether they want to keep it available for Trump to use it as a wedge in the election, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lead Democratic negotiator on the deal, said on Thursday, calling it 95% done.

But for all their outrage about the need for immediate action at the border, Republicans now appear spooked and scattered over tackling the issue at all, after Trump injected himself into Senate negotiations this week. On Wednesday, the GOP presidential frontrunner directly instructed several Republican senators not to support any bipartisan border bills because doing so would help Biden ahead of the November election.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged Wednesday the quandary Republicans find themselves in, according to Punchbowl News. He told colleagues in a closed-door meeting that Trump would prefer not to do a border deal, and suggested that moving against the former president would divide the party and threaten plans to recapture the Senate.

McConnells message to Republicans set off alarm bells across Capitol Hill about the fate of bipartisan border talks. But on Thursday, several of his colleagues stressed to reporters that the GOP leader wasnt pulling the plug on negotiations and instead was saying that this is a decision that needs to be made by the entire conference.

Were at a critical moment and weve got to drive hard to get this done, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters, indicating that GOP leadership isnt yet ready to throw in the towel.

If we cant get there, well go to Plan B, Thune said. But for now, at least, there are still attempts being made to reach a conclusion.