House’s Ukraine package gains Biden support

WASHINGTON, April 18, (AP): US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he strongly supports a proposal from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending crucial bipartisan support to the precarious effort to approve $95 billion in funding for the U.S. allies this week.

Before potential weekend voting, Johnson was facing a choice between potentially losing his job and aiding Ukraine. He notified lawmakers earlier Wednesday that he would forge ahead despite growing anger from his right flank. Shortly after Johnson released the aid proposals, the Democratic president offered his emphatic support for the package.

Pass

“The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,” Biden said. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”

After agonizing for days over how to proceed on the package, Johnson pushed ahead on a plan to hold votes on three funding packages - to provide about $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion to allies in the Indo-Pacific - as well as several other foreign policy proposals in a fourth bill. The plan roughly matches the amounts that the Senate has already approved.

The bulk of the money for Ukraine would go to purchasing weapons and ammunitions from US defense manufacturers. Johnson is also proposing that $9 billion of economic assistance for Kyiv be structured as forgivable loans, along with greater oversight on military aid,

but the decision to support Ukraine at all has angered populist conservatives in the House and given new energy to a threat to remove him from the speaker’s office.

Also:

WASHINGTON: The Senate dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the US-Mexico border and shutting down his trial before arguments even began.

Senators voted to dismiss both articles

of impeachment and end the proceedings, with Democrats arguing that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with immigration law and second article charged him with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck

Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.

In this photo released by Voronezh News telegram channel on April 18, local citizens stand near damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack house in Voronezh, Russia. Russian air defenses downed what authorities described as five Ukrainian balloons overnight, the defense ministry in Moscow said on Thursday, as the sides kept up longrange strikes that have featured heavily in what has largely become a war of attrition. (AP)