House’s Ukraine, Israel aid package moving ahead as Speaker Johnson fights to keep his job
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, faced with a choice between potentially losing his job or promoting aid to Ukraine, on Wednesday aimed ahead to a vote later this week on a financing package that also includes Israel and Taiwan.
After waffling for days on how to move forward with the package, the Republican speaker texted Republican lawmakers that he will embark on a days-long effort to hold votes on three financing packages for Ukraine, Israel, allies in the Indo-Pacific, as well as and several other foreign policy proposals in a fourth bill.
Johnson said he proposed structuring some of the aid to Ukraine in the form of loans, along with more oversight, but the decision to support Ukraine at all has angered and re-energized populist Conservatives in the House of Representatives given to the threat to remove him from the gavel. office.
“By posting the text of these bills as soon as they are ready, we will ensure there is time for a robust amendment process,” Johnson wrote in his post, which was shared by two Republican lawmakers.
Votes on the package are expected Saturday evening, Johnson said. But he must walk a treacherous path to get there.
The president will almost certainly need democratic support in the procedural maneuvers to advance his complex plan, which will see each of the aid packages voted on separately.
It was not clear whether Democrats would support Johnson. They were still waiting for the details of the legislation and have become increasingly impatient with its deliberations.
Democrats have demanded that the foreign aid bill closely follow the $95 billion foreign aid package that the Senate passed in February. That legislation would fund U.S. allies and provide humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the threat to impeach Johnson from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, gained support this week. Another Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said he joined Greene in calling on Johnson to resign. Other Republican lawmakers have openly complained about Johnson’s leadership.
“You are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills that depend on Democrats,” Greene wrote on the social platform X. “Everyone sees through this.”
In an effort to appease conservatives, Johnson said he would hold a separate vote on a border security package that includes most of a bill already passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives last year. But conservatives quickly denounced that plan as insufficient. Representative Chip Roy of Texas called the strategy a “complete failure.”
As part of the foreign aid package, Johnson also said members of the House of Representatives would have the opportunity to vote on a range of foreign policy proposals, including allowing the US to seize frozen assets from Russia’s central bank, imposing sanctions on Iran, Russia and China, and possibly banning popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner does not sell its stake.