Speaker Johnson needs Democrats to approve foreign aid in the House

Speaker Mike Johnson's elaborate plan for pushing aid to Ukraine through the House over his own party's objections relies on an unusual strategy: He is counting on House Democrats and their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, to provide the votes necessary to clear the way for it to come to the floor.

If Democrats were to provide those crucial votes, it would be the second time in two years that Republican leaders have had to turn to the minority party to rescue them from their own recalcitrant rightwing colleagues in order to allow major legislation to be debated and voted on.

Given Republicans' opposition, Johnson, R-La., will need Democrats' support on the aid for Ukraine itself. But before he even gets to that, he will need their votes on a procedural motion, known as a rule, to bring the legislation to the floor, something the minority party almost never backs in the House.

That puts Democrats once again in a strange but strong position, wielding substantial influence over the measure, including which proposed changes, if any, are allowed to be voted on and how the foreign aid is structured. After all, Johnson knows that if they are unsatisfied and choose to withhold their votes, the legislation risks imploding before it even comes up.

The dynamic also increases the likelihood that Johnson will need Democrats again — to save his precarious speakership, now under threat from two members of his party, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. They are enraged at his strategy for sending aid to Ukraine and every day appear to be edging closer to calling a vote to oust him from his post.

Republican leaders on Wednesday released the text of the four bills that together will make up the aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies, and Johnson said there would be votes over the weekend. There are still plenty of opportunities for the bipartisan coalition of support that would be needed to push it through the House to be derailed.

But Democrats had begun laying out their terms.

Jeffries told his caucus on Tuesday during a closeddoor meeting that he would not be willing to support any package that included less than the $9 billion in humanitarian aid that was part of the national security bill passed by the Senate.

House Republicans previously pushed through an aid bill for Israel that omitted humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip, and some have recently suggested that any further aid for Ukraine should be restricted to military funding. But Jeffries called preserving humanitarian aid a “red line” for Democrats, according to a person familiar with his private remarks who described them on the condition of anonymity.

“We need $9 billion in humanitarian aid,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, DConn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “That's what is required to deal with Ukraine, Sudan, Somalia, Haiti and Gaza.”

“Every single time in this 118th session of Congress, the Democrats have put the priorities of the American people over everything,” Rep. Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 Democrat, said Wednesday.