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Speaker Mike Johnson said he will not be putting the Senate’s national security aid bill on the House floor, hours after the Senate spent all night pushing the bill through its chamber.
‘I certainly don’t [plan on it],’ he told reporters Tuesday. ‘Right now, we’re dealing with the appropriations process, we have immediate deadlines upon us and that’s where the attention is in the House in this moment.’
The $95 billion aid package included funding for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan. The immigration provisions were stripped out entirely after conservatives insisted they did not go far enough to secure the southern border.
Without Johnson’s approval, there is now talk of forcing the deal to the floor by the arcane discharge petition. That would require 218 members to sign on to a demand to force legislation to the floor.
‘All options on the table, we’re gonna use every available legislative tool,’ Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. ‘There are more than 300 bipartisan votes’ to pass the foreign aid bill, he claimed.
Johnson said he will not be putting the Senate ‘s national security aid bill on the House floor, hours after the Senate spent all night pushing the bill through its chamber
Without Johnson’s approval, there is now talk of forcing the deal to the floor by the arcane discharge petition. ‘All options on the table, we’re gonna use every available legislative tool,’ Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters
It passed the Senate Tuesday morning after a rare all-night session ending in a 70-29 vote.
In total, the package includes $61 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel in its war against Hamas and $4.83 billion to support partners in the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan, to deter aggression by China.
It also provides $9.15 billion in humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine and other conflict zones around the globe.
President Biden on Tuesday implored the House to pass the deal. ‘History is watching,’ he said. ‘Failure to support Ukraine in this critical moment will never be forgotten.’
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Johnson to allow the bill to come to the House floor.
‘We’ve heard all kinds of rumors about whether the House supports Ukraine or doesn’t. It seems to me that the easy way to solve that would be to vote,’ McConnell told Politico.
After House Speaker Mike Johnson objected to the immigration provisions in the deal, senators focused on passing it without them. But Johnson then insisted he had wanted border measures – just not the immigration reform they’d offered.
He called the deal ‘insufficient’ without border security measures in a late night statement saying the Senate has ‘failed to meet the moment.’
‘Now, 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,’ Johnson continued. ‘America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.’
But Johnson has not scheduled another standalone Israel aid bill that failed last week.
‘We knew this would happen,’ Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chair of the right wing Freedom Caucus told reporters. ‘We knew the Senate would send it back without the pretend border security.’
‘We shouldn’t borrow $100 billion from our kids or grandkids to send it overseas. It’s got Hamas support in it essentially, with money going to Gaza … Israel support which has near unanimous support among Republicans shouldn’t be held hostage to these other concerns.’
Sen. Josh Hawley , R-Mo., blamed Mitch McConnell for the dysfunction as other Republicans floated ousting the longtime leader.
The U.S. has had to cut military aid to Ukraine after its budget authority ran dry. The two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion is approaching
Ukraine’s war with Russia has spanned over two years
He then called on Johnson to pass Israel aid with offsets. But Johnson already did this months ago, paid for by taking money away from the IRS – and the Senate roundly rejected it.
Last week, Republicans tanked a bipartisan $118 billion bipartisan deal to beef up border security while funding Ukraine and Israel. They accused it of not going far enough to secure the border and said it would cement Biden’s ‘open border’ policies.
It wasn’t easy to get Senate Republicans onboard with the thinner $95 billion deal without immigration measures as tempers flied over the tanked border deal.
But ultimately, over a dozen Republicans voted to pass the bill with Democrats because of the fear that Russian President Putin would be emboldened.
The vote Tuesday morning had the support of 22 Republicans. However, two Democrats, Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont, and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, voted against it.
