WASHINGTON, D.C. (NewsNation) – Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is seeking a face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss foreign aid and border policy as he continues to express doubts about the country’s future The Senate passed a national security bill.

“For a month, I have been asking to sit down with the president to talk about the border and national security, and that meeting has not been granted,” Johnson said Wednesday during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol. “I will continue to insist because there are very serious issues that need to be addressed.”

“If the speaker of the House of Representatives can’t meet with the president of the United States, that’s a problem,” Johnson said, adding, “I don’t know why they’re uncomfortable with the president sitting across from me,” but I will in go in in good faith.”

The White House rejected Johnson’s request for a sit-down session, saying the speaker needed to figure out what he wanted.

“What is the individual hearing about when he is presented with exactly what he asked for,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s almost as if the speaker is negotiating with himself.”

Biden met with Johnson and other members of Congress nearly a month ago to discuss the standoff over border security and aid to Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bipartisan $95.3 billion foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan that did not include border-related policies. The Senate’s 70-29 vote was supported by both Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Biden later urged House Republicans to pass the bill, warning that “history is watching.” However, the measure faces resistance in the Republican-led House of Representatives, where the speaker made clear he would not move the bill forward without provisions on border security.

“We will not be forced to act by the Senate, which does not say a word about the American border in the bill in the latest product it sent us,” Johnson said. “Not a word.”

But last week, House Republicans said a Senate bill that would couple aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with border security provisions was “dead on its face.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates called the speaker’s argument about border security a political game.

“For months, Speaker Johnson has called for Ukraine’s legislation to include border security,” Bates said in a statement. “But when given the opportunity to support the toughest, fairest bipartisan border law in decades, he killed it – siding with Donald Trump and the fentanyl traffickers instead of Joe Biden and the Border Patrol Union.”

“The only common denominator in Speaker Johnson’s spiraling border security crisis is politics,” Bates added. “Speaker Johnson is damaging America’s national security by opposing one bipartisan breakthrough after another in the name of politics. And the American people see through it.”