Speaker Mike Johnson will lead House Republicans in introducing three separate bills this week to send billions to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, DailyMail.com confirmed.
A fourth bill will reportedly include several measures, such as requiring TikTok to be divested from its Chinese-owned parent company, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets, a military aid loan program to Ukraine, as well as loans for humanitarian aid.
All four bills would be combined under the same ‘rule’ to send them to the House of Representatives for final approval this week.
Democrats and Republicans have remained at an impasse as the White House has made clear that President Joe Biden will not support an aid package aimed solely at Israel.
Instead, he is pushing House Republicans to pass the Senate-approved $95 billion package with combined money for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific — a package that hardliners oppose have protested.
Johnson has so far remained coy about how he will tackle foreign aid, but convened an emergency conference on Monday to chart a path forward after Iran’s attacks last weekend.
The two sides have remained at an impasse as the White House has made clear that President Joe Biden does not support an Israel-only aid package.
He laid out plans for an “Appliance Week,” in which the Republican Party would vote on bills to roll back Biden’s kitchen appliance rules so the House could work on legislation targeting Iran with sanctions and foreign aid to Israel.
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., one of the more conservative members, said he supports the speaker’s efforts and that they are “trying to get it done before we go home.”
Congress will work from their home districts next week.
Johnson put the $17 billion Israel-only aid package on the floor of the House of Representatives in February, but failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to pass the proposal under suspension.
“We’re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together as we speak,” he said. ‘We are looking at the possibilities and all those additional things.’
The House of Representatives approved a $14 billion aid package for Israel in October, but the deal was offset by cuts in IRS funding that led to the country’s demise in the Democratic-led Senate.
Conservative hardliners have warned Johnson against linking any Ukrainian funding to an Israeli aid bill.
“Under no circumstances will the House Freedom Caucus commit to using the emergency in Israel as a false justification to ram through aid to Ukraine without compensation and without security for our own wide-open borders,” said conservative hardliner Freedom Caucus in a statement. Monday.
Meanwhile, a motion to leave has been hanging over Johnson’s head since MP Marjorie Taylor Greene launched the bid to oust him last month. The Georgia Republican is a staunch opponent of aid to Ukraine and has already threatened to target Johnson if he raises the issue.
But after Johnson met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday and said he supported him, Greene appeared to avert the threat.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘I am one of President Trump’s biggest fighters here in Washington and everyone knows I am grateful to the president and I want him to focus on defeating these ridiculous trials in New York and winning of his election.”
Trump was in New York City on Monday for the first day in his criminal hush-money trial over an alleged scheme to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
With the Republicans’ razor-thin majority, Johnson can only afford to lose three Republicans and keep his job unless Democrats vote to save him.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has suggested this would happen if Johnson does what Democrats want: approve the additional $95 billion.
Israel considers Iran’s 350-missile attack a “declaration of war” even though it says 99 percent of the rockets have been intercepted.
The attack was in response to the Israeli drone strike in Syria that killed 12 Iranians, including two top generals.
The Senate-passed bill included both humanitarian and military aid: $61 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel in its war against Hamas and $4.83 billion to support partners in the Indo-Pacific.
Johnson previously suggested he would not introduce the Senate bill in the House of Representatives because adding only military aid would be more “palatable” to members.
“No American taxpayer should be tasked with keeping the nation of Ukraine’s pension system afloat.”
Any foreign aid bill would likely have to pass under a suspension of rules in the House of Representatives, meaning a two-thirds majority would be needed to pass.
The bill would lose some Democrats who would oppose further aid to Israel without humanitarian conditions. It would lose some Republicans who are outright opposed to aiding Ukraine, which could jeopardize its chances for a proposal.