Democrats look to be key to passing foreign aid and keeping Johnson in chair
WASHINGTON
The fate of foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as Speaker Mike Johnson’s job appears to be in the hands of House Democrats, as Johnson aims this week to pass billions of dollars to support U.S. allies.
Johnson, R-La., told Republicans in a conference meeting Tuesday that the House would hold individual votes on four bills — aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and then a fourth bill with a mix of items — and then combine them into one package to send over to the Senate.
This strategy is infuriating House Republicans who are against aid for Ukraine. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., announced after the meeting that he is now on board with the effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to boot Johnson from the speaker’s chair.
Two Republican votes would be enough to remove Johnson from the office after Friday, when Rep. Mike Gallagher, RWis., is set to resign, unless Democrats act to save him.
And it was clear after the meeting that Johnson would lose a significant number of Republican votes on the rule needed to advance the measures, meaning he would need help from Democrats to get the aid that many on both sides of the aisle want to get across the finish line.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said on leaving the meeting that there was no path to adoption of the rule with Republican votes alone. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., the newest member of the Rules Committee, agreed.
“Watch the procedural votes. The Democrats have the ability to help us on procedure on this funding mechanism,” Scott said. “Let’s see if they do.”
Johnson told Republicans on Tuesday morning that combining the bills into one package would force the Senate to consider everything the House passes, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said.
“So you can’t cherrypick it, and say, ‘Yee-haw, there goes Ukraine,’ and the rest of them get the usual sentence of death from the Senate leadership,” Amodei, a senior appropriator, said.
The process of merging separate bills into one package after each measure has passed the House separately is known in procedural parlance as a “MIRV” rule. Normally, that’s an acronym for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, or a ballistic missile that carries multiple warheads.
The effect is similar on the Senate; after House passage of each bill, the rule, if adopted, provides that they all be attached to the same underlying vehicle before being transmitted to the Senate. House leaders have employed this tool at least 14 times since the mid-1990s, such as one notable attempt in 2000 to attach a small-business tax-cut measure to legislation that would increase the minimum wage.
Rep. Andy Biggs, RAriz., who initially appeared to back Johnson’s piecemeal funding strategy on Monday night, later backtracked when it became clear the speaker was contemplating combining the pieces.
“MIRV – the process used to merge the bills – is about as ridiculous as ranked-choice voting,” Biggs wrote on X late Monday. “The least popular option is the one that wins.”
While Republicans have been willing to put bills with larger bipartisan support on the floor under suspension of the rules, doing so requires a twothirds majority that may not exist for this package.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Democrats would handle the situation. While it’s not typical for the minority party to help with rule votes, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., did allow Democrats to support the rule to ensure that the debt-limitsuspension law could pass last summer.
Greene set the table for her effort to remove Johnson shortly after the House passed the final fiscal 2024 appropriations package in March, introducing her resolution but not invoking the procedure that would force its consideration.
After Friday, Greene would need just one additional Republican to get on board to remove Johnson if Democrats did not back Johnson.