Democrats likely to help Johnson pass foreign aid bill

House Democrats hinted Thursday that they were committed to passing a foreign aid supplemental package even if it meant helping Republican leaders get past usually party-line procedural hurdles – and potentially helping a GOP speaker keep his gavel.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is moving to set up Saturday votes on three bills that would send aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. The measures would then be combined with a fourth bill comprising a hodgepodge of bipartisan priorities – many of which have previously passed the House – including sanctions on Russia and Iran and a modified version of a bill to force the sale of TikTok.

It’s unlikely Johnson has the Republican votes needed to adopt a rule that would provide for floor consideration of the four measures, given criticism from the party’s right flank. Democratic leadership has not explicitly committed to helping Johnson out on the rule, but said they would do what was needed to see the legislation across the finish line.

“We’re going to do what we’ve done throughout the entirety of the Congress, which is to make sure we take care of the business of the American people,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “We have consistently done that. No one has to ask whether we will shirk our responsibilities when every major piece of legislation that has passed during the 118th Congress has passed with a majority of Democrats and in many cases a minority of Republicans.”

Rules are typically seen as the responsibility of the majority party to adopt, but in rare cases the minority has backed a rule poised to fail when they want to see the underlying legislation pass. Democrats did so earlier this Congress with permission from their leadership when some voted to adopt the rule providing for the consideration of the law that suspended the debt ceiling.

Many Democrats leaving a caucus meeting Thursday morning declined to say whether they would support the rule on the floor, saying they were waiting for instructions from their leadership.

Rep. Wiley Nickel, a moderate Democrat from North Carolina, said he would like to see the situation play out as it did with the debt ceiling.

“I just personally think that’s the right way to do it,” Nickel said of the rule vote last June. “There’s plenty of Democrats who can vote for rules, but we want leadership to have a seat at the table to make sure we’re working together in a bipartisan way to get the right result for the American people.”

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who traveled to Ukraine with colleagues earlier this month, went further, saying he would do what was needed to get aid to the country passed.

“It’s my intention to make sure that these bills pass regardless of how we handle it,” he said. “Procedurally, I can’t speak for other Democrats, but it’s my intention to get these bills across the finish line.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the bills would not go down on Democrats’ watch.

“Democrats will not be responsible for this bill failing,” she said when asked whether her colleagues would allow the rule to fall short.