After debating whether to risk his job amid renewed threats, Speaker Mike Johnson is moving forward with a foreign aid plan that includes separate votes on money for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
In a last-minute decision, he’s adding a fifth bill that includes elements of the’ House’s Republican-only border security bill that was already passed last year, Johnson texted his conference Wednesday morning.
The package in total would offer $26 billion to Israel, $60 billion to Ukraine and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific, a combination of military and humanitarian aid. It is made up of four separate bills, including one for each region.
The Israel security bill will offer $4 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system and billions more for weapons systems, artillery and munitions, as well as an additional $2.4 billion for U.S. operations in the region.
Nine billion dollars in that bill goes to humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.
President Biden said he ‘strongly’ supports the foreign aid package. ‘Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine is facing continued bombardment from Russia that has intensified dramatically in the last month,’ he said in a statement.
The Ukraine bill includes $23 billion for replenishing U.S. stockpiles that have been depleted for the fight in Russia. Some $11 billion would go to U.S. military operations in the region and $14 billion would go to procuring advanced weapons systems. Another $26 million would go to oversight and accountability of equipment given to Ukraine.
Two separate economic assistance funds worth $7.85 billion and $1.58 billion would also be offered to Ukraine under a loan structure. The president has wide authority over the terms of the loan, and could forgive half of it after November 15, 2024 and half after January 1, 2026.
A fourth bill includes several measures such as requiring TikTok divest from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets and a lend-lease program for military aid to Ukraine.
Johnson has planned a Saturday evening vote to give members over three days to read the text of the package – one day after GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher’s intended last day in Congress and his majority is whittled down to 217-213, only allowing him to lose one Republican vote on party-line legislation.
Gallagher’s office now says he has ‘flexibility’ to stay until Saturday.
All four bills were supposed to be lumped together under the same ‘rule’ to advance them to the House floor for final passage this week before going to the Senate.
The fifth bill will come up under a separate rule. That bill is an olive branch to conservatives who were were furious that after months of promising not to secure Ukraine’s border before the U.S.’s, he did not add a border component to the foreign aid package.
Typically only the majority party – Republicans – votes for the rule. But Johnson will need Democrats to pass the foreign aid rule with some in his own party on a mission to stop any further Ukraine assistance.
Democrats have signaled they will support the foreign aid rule – but are likely to oppose the border rule.
Conservative hardliners, including Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are not satisfied with the separate border bill vote and have already said they would oppose the foreign aid rule.
The House already passed its GOP border bill, H.R. 2, last year and it died in the Senate. The new bill could easily meet the same fate.
The fourth bill include a provision involving the REPO Act, meaning it would seize Russian assets that until now have only been frozen, and one that would involve the Lend-Lease Act, which would require Ukraine to give back U.S. military assets that are not destroyed in war.
Johnson noted much of the bill is not going directly to any country but is going to backfill U.S. stockpiles that have been depleted for Ukraine and Israel. The U.S. was heavily involved in defending Israel against Iran’s 300 missile strikes over the weekend.
Massie on Tuesday said he would join Greene in her motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership over his foreign aid plan.
‘He’s going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy,’ Massie told reporters of the movement to oust the speaker. McCarthy, who is tight with Massie, was voted out of the speakership by eight GOP members last fall.
But Johnson told reporters following Massie’s threats: ‘I am not resigning. It is, in my view, an absurd notion,’ he said of the motion to vacate.
‘I regard myself as a war-time speaker,’ Johnson said of the newly invigorated mission to oust him. ‘I didn’t think this would be an easy path.’
Massie harkened back to former Speaker John Boehner, who resigned when it became clear he would be ousted in 2015.
‘I’m trying to persuade him to resign like John Boehner did at a date in the future. So that that gives us time to go to conference and pick the replacement,’ the Kentucky Republican told reporters.
Massie suggested he would not make the resolution privileged, which would force a vote with in two days. ‘I don’t control the timeline,’ he said. ‘I don’t think he makes it more than two or three more months.’
Intelligence experts have blared out dire warnings that Ukraine desperately needs aid in its fight against Russia.
National security-minded Republican leaders are in Johnson’s other ear demanding he bring aid to the floor immediately.
‘We must pass Ukraine aid now,’ read a joint statement from Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner and Ranking Democrat Jim Himes. ‘Today, in a classified briefing, our committee was informed of the critical need to provide Ukraine aid this week.’
‘Ukraine’s situation on the ground is critical,’ they added.
‘We don’t have time to spare when it comes to our national security. We need to pass this aid package this week,’ read a joint statement from Turner, Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, Appropriations Chair Tom Cole and Defense appropriations Chair Ken Calvert.
