House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he would do it Try to advance war aid this week for Israel as he faces the difficult task of winning House approval for a national security package that features funding for Ukraine and its allies in Asia.
Johnson, R-La., is already under enormous political pressure from his fellow Republican lawmakers as he tries to vacillate between the Republican Party’s divided support for helping Kiev defend itself against Moscow’s invasion. The Republican speaker has been sitting on one for 2 months $95 billion supplementary package This would supply support to U.S. allies, provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Ukraine and Gaza, and supply funding to replenish U.S. weapons supplied to Taiwan.
The unprecedented attack Iran’s comments on Israel early Sunday further increased pressure on Johnson, but additionally gave him a possibility to underscore the urgency of approving the funding.
Johnson told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he and Republicans “understand the need to stand with Israel” and that he’ll attempt to push aid this week.
“The details of this package are currently being put together,” he said. “We’re looking at the options and all these additional issues.”
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Johnson has “made it clear” that he wants a path for funding to Israel, Ukraine and allies in Asia see house floor this week.
The speaker has expressed support for laws that will structure a few of Kiev’s financing as a loan, pave the best way for the U.S. to tap frozen assets on the Russian central bank and include other policy changes. Johnson pushed for the Biden administration to lift the pause on approvals for liquefied natural gas exports and at times also called for policy changes on the U.S. border with Mexico.
But currently, the one package that has broad bipartisan support in Congress is the Senate-passed bill, which incorporates about $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby urged the spokesman to get the package “on the floor as quickly as possible.”
“We didn’t need a reminder of what was going on in Ukraine,” Kirby said on NBC. “But last night certainly underscores clearly the threat that Israel faces in a very, very difficult neighborhood.”
As Johnson looks for a technique to boost funding for Ukraine, he has done so in talks with the White House and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Since his job is in peril, Johnson traveled to Florida on Friday to an event with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club. Trump expressed support for Johnson and said he had a “very good relationship” with him.
“He and I agree 100% on these big agenda items,” Johnson said. “When you talk about aid to Ukraine, he introduced the lean lease concept, which is really important and I think has a lot of consensus.”
But Trump’s “America First” agenda has inspired many Republicans to push for much more isolationist policies. Support for Ukraine has steadily declined within the roughly two years because the war began, and a cause that after enjoyed widespread support has turn into certainly one of Johnson’s biggest problems.
When he returns to Washington on Monday, Johnson can even face a gaggle of conservatives already angered by how he has led the House of Representatives to take care of much of the established order, each on government spending and, more recently, on a surveillance tool the US government.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia, has called for Johnson’s downfall. She left the Capitol on Friday, telling reporters that support for her efforts was growing.
While no other Republicans have openly aligned themselves with Greene, a growing variety of hardline conservatives are openly denigrating Johnson and opposing his leadership.
Meanwhile, senior Republican lawmakers who support aid to Ukraine are increasingly frustrated by the months-long wait to be introduced within the House. Kiev troops are running out of ammunition and Russia is being encouraged to achieve ground in a spring and summer offensive. A large missile and drone attack destroyed certainly one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and others damaged last week.
“Russia is starting to gain ground. “Ukraine is starting to lose the ability to defend itself,” Turner said. “The United States must step up and provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs.”
The divided dynamics have forced Johnson to attempt to put together a package that will provide some political advantages for Republicans while keeping Democrats on board. But Democrats have repeatedly called on the speaker to accomplish that $95 billion package passed placed on record by the Senate in February.
Although progressive Democrats have refused to support aid to Israel because they feared Israel would support its campaign in Gaza, which has killed hundreds of civilians, most House Democrats have thrown their support behind the Senate package.
“The reason the Senate bill is the only bill is because of the urgency,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the highest Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week. “We pass the Senate bill, it goes straight to the president’s desk and you get the aid to Ukraine immediately. This is the only option.”
Many Democrats have also signaled that they’d likely be willing to assist Johnson thwart an try and remove him as speaker if he brings the Senate bill to the ground.
“I am one of those who would save him if we created Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine and adequate border security,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.
