GOP opposition in House threatens foreign aid package
Money for Israel, Ukraine hanging in the balance
WASHINGTON — A buzz saw of Republican opposition in the House is threatening to kill the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel that the Senate overwhelmingly passed early Tuesday, leaving proponents of the emergency aid legislation scrounging for unorthodox ways to push the bill over the finish line.
Hours before the Senate approved the bill in a lopsided 7029 vote, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested he would not allow the aid package to receive a vote on the House floor. The measure would provide an additional $60.1 billion for Ukraine — which would bring the total US investment in the war effort to more than $170 billion — as well as $14.1 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas and almost $10 billion for humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” Johnson said in a statement Monday night, adding: “In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters.”
Earlier this month, Johnson rejected a bipartisan border bill crafted in the Senate, saying the crackdown at the USMexico border needed to be more severe.
Senators often hope that an overwhelming vote on a bill in their chamber will jam the House to take up its legislation. And hours after the Senate approved the aid package, President Biden sought to ratchet up pressure on Johnson, urging him from the White House to bring the bill “to the floor immediately.”
“I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind, and not allow the minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on,” Biden said.
He added: “This bipartisan bill sends a clear message to Ukrainians and to our partners, to our allies around the world: America can be trusted. America can be relied upon, and America stands up for freedom.”
Passage of the bill in the Senate reflected a critical mass of support in Congress for continuing to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, even as the Republican Party is increasingly turning away from its traditional hawkish posture and belief in projecting US power and democratic principles around the world.
But Johnson, who has himself opposed aiding Ukraine, has so far appeared unwilling to allow a House vote on whether to do so, in a reflection of how toxic the issue has become for his conference. A small handful of ultraconservative lawmakers have said they will move to oust Johnson if he allows a vote on Ukraine aid without stringent immigration measures attached.
The hostile landscape in the House means that the foreign aid bill’s only path through the House may be for a bipartisan coalition like the one in the Senate — including more mainstream, national securityminded Republicans — to come together and use extraordinary measures to force action on it.
Proponents of sending aid to Ukraine in recent days have discussed the idea of steering around opposition from Johnson and the far right by using a maneuver known as a discharge petition. That allows lawmakers to force legislation to the floor if they can gather the signatures of a majority of the House — 218 members — calling for the action.
Dozens of House Republicans, including the leaders of the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence committees, have supported sending tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, but it is not known how many of them — if any — would be willing to take the extraordinary step of defying the rest of their party and teaming with Democrats in a bid to force action on the matter.