House Speaker Johnson searches for compromise to speed Ukraine aid
In the same interview, he indicated the House would attach new conditions to the aid, possibly including providing the assistance as a loan to eventually be repaid, seizing Russian assets as an offset or overturning a Biden administration freeze on new licenses to export liquefied natural gas that is opposed by Republican allies in the energy industry.
The prospects and timing remain uncertain. The speaker hasn’t yet settled on specific provisions he would insist on, the leadership officials said.
SENATE ACTION
The Senate already passed it own Ukraine aid plan in February. If the House passed a new version instead, that would create a potentially lengthy delay, even if the Democratic-controlled Senate agrees.
Mitch Mcconnell, the Senate Republican leader who has repeatedly urged Johnson to bring up the Senate version for a vote, on Monday called the Ukraine aid “extremely important” and said he planned to focus on fighting growing isolationism particularly in his own party over the next few years.
“The Russians have become like the old Soviet Union,” McConnell said in a local radio interview in Kentucky. “I think this is the most dangerous time for the free world since the Berlin Wall fell down.”
Mcconnell said arguments of isolationists are easily refuted. “We’re not losing any of our troops,” he said. But if Ukraine falls, “some NATO country will be next and then we will be right in the middle of it.”
He also pointed to funding and jobs in 38 states from the Ukraine supplemental, with much of the funding going to replace weapons stockpiles with newer weapons.
BIPARTISAN APPROACH
Johnson aides on Monday wouldn’t address how deeply he has engaged with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about a bipartisan approach.
Any Ukraine aid package would need substantial Democratic support to pass the House because large numbers of Republicans oppose assistance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his desperate pleas for more military help last week in a conversation with Johnson. He said in a posting on X afterward, “In this situation, quick passage of US aid to Ukraine by Congress is vital.”
Johnson, however, faces a threat of being ousted from his leadership post by hardliners over Ukraine aid.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia last month took the first procedural step to remove Johnson as speaker, though she so far hasn’t forced a vote on overthrowing him.
Johnson on Sunday dismissed the overthrow threat as a “distraction.” Yet Greene, in a posting on X Monday, assailed Johnson’s talk of a bill to provide Ukraine some form of aid.
“If Speaker Johnson gives another $60 billion to the defense of Ukraine’s border after he FULLY FUNDED Biden’s deadly open border, the cruel joke would be on the American people,” Greene wrote.