Biden backs Johnson’s push on aid
Speaker risks ouster by GOP colleagues on Ukraine funding
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that 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 effort this week to approve $95 billion in funding for the U.S. allies.
Ahead of potential weekend voting, Johnson was facing a choice between losing his job and funding Ukraine. He notified lawmakers earlier Wednesday that he would forge ahead despite growing anger from his right flank. Shortly after Johnson released the funding proposals, Biden offered his emphatic support for the package.
“The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,” the Democratic president 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 over how to proceed on the package for days, Johnson notified GOP lawmakers Wednesday that he would push to hold votes on three funding packages for Ukraine, Israel and 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.
“A strong America is good for the entire world,”
Johnson told reporters. He asserted he had taken the Senate bill and “improved the process and policy.”
Johnson emphasized that the bulk of the funding for Ukraine would go to purchasing weapons and ammunition from U.S. defense manufacturers. The legislation proposes that $9 billion of economic assistance for Kyiv be structured as forgivable loans, along with greater oversight on military funding, 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.
The votes on the package are expected Saturday evening, Johnson said. But
he faces a treacherous path to get there.
The speaker needs Democratic support on the procedural maneuvers to advance his complex plan of holding separate votes on each part of the aid package. Johnson is trying to squeeze the aid through the House’s political divisions on foreign policy by forming unique voting blocks for each issue and then sewing the package back together.
He said House members would also have an opportunity to vote on a raft of foreign policy proposals, including allowing the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets, placing sanctions on Iran, Russia and China, and potentially banning the video app
TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries planned to gather Democrats on Thursday to discuss the package “as a caucus, as a family, as a team.”
Crucial to Democratic support, the House proposal kept intact roughly $9 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other conflict zones. Progressive Democrats also oppose providing Israel with funds that could be used for its campaign in Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.
Meanwhile, the threat to oust Johnson from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gained support. One other Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky,
said he was joining Greene and called for Johnson to resign. Other GOP lawmakers have openly complained about Johnson’s leadership.
In an effort to satisfy conservatives, Johnson said he would hold a separate vote on a border security package that contains most of a bill passed by House Republicans last year. That bill has already been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and conservatives quickly denounced the plan to hold a separate vote on it as insufficient. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas called the strategy a “complete failure.”
The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus posted on X that Johnson was “surrendering the last opportunity we have to combat the border crisis.”
With the speaker fighting for his job, his office went into overdrive trumpeting the support from Republican governors and conservative and religious leaders for keeping Johnson in office.
“Enough is enough,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on social media. He said “instead of bickering amongst themselves,” the House Republicans should “do their damn job and vote on the important issues facing our nation.”
Conservative evangelical leader Ralph Reed said his Faith & Freedom Coalition opposed the push to oust the speaker and would “strongly support” Johnson.
At the same time, the speaker’s office was tidying up after Johnson said on Fox News that he and former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee to take on Biden, were “100% united” on the big agenda items, when in fact the Republican presidential nominee who had just hosted the House leader in a show of support opposes much overseas aid as well as a separate national security surveillance bill.
The precarious effort to pass the foreign aid comes amid alarm at the precarious situation in Ukraine.
In the House Intelligence Committee, the Republican chairman, Rep. Mike Turner, and top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes, issued a joint statement Tuesday saying they had been informed in a classified briefing that there was a “critical need” to provide funding for Ukraine this week. “The United States must stand against Putin’s war of aggression now as Ukraine’s situation on the ground is critical,” the lawmakers said in a statement.