WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson remained uncertain Monday about his plan to boost aid to Israel and Ukraine, leaving the future of the funding in doubt as lawmakers returned to Washington for a crucial week of work on the issue. foreign policy.
Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend renewed pressure on Republicans in the House of Representatives to take action on a national security package that would send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. But after two months of pondering how such a package could cut across political divides in the House of Representatives, Johnson has revealed little of his strategy, including whether he will try to boost funding for Israel separately or combine it together coincide with aid for other countries. American allies.
As the House struggles to act, conflicts around the world have escalated. Israel’s military chief said Monday that Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack over the weekend. And Ukraine’s military chief warned this weekend that the battlefield situation in the country’s east has “deteriorated significantly in recent days” as warming weather has allowed Russian forces to launch a new offensive.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, who received Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the White House, called on the House to immediately take up the financing package. “They have to do it now,” he said.
Senior Republicans also grew impatient after Johnson offered them assurances that he would bring up aid to Ukraine. Many had expected him to take that step before the House recessed next week. But with no plan in place, time was running out for Johnson, who is gradually learning the profession of speaker.
The speaker planned to meet with his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives on Monday evening. But the meeting will be filled with lawmakers strongly opposed to Ukraine: Republican defense hawks, including top lawmakers on the national security committees, who want Johnson to finally take on the additional national security package as a bundle, are facing populist conservatives that are fierce. opposed to further support for Kiev’s struggle.
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Johnson revealed little about his decision, having said last weekend that he would raise Israeli aid this week. Johnson has expressed support for aid to Ukraine, but ignored questions from reporters on Monday about whether he would pool funding for the two countries. The House also prepared this week to pass a series of bills aimed at punishing Iran.
“The House of Representatives must come to Israel’s aid as quickly as possible, and the only way to do that is by passing the Senate’s supplemental bill as quickly as possible,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Meanwhile, the White House would “oppose” a standalone bill dealing only with aid to Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. Democratic leaders are pressuring Johnson to pass a Senate-passed bill that would provide a total of $95 billion for U.S. allies, as well as humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledged in a letter to lawmakers to “do everything in our legislative power to confront aggression” around the world, calling the situation similar to that in the run-up to the Second World War.
“The grave events of this past weekend in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to take immediate action,” Jeffries said. “We must immediately take up the bipartisan and comprehensive national security bill passed by the Senate. This is a Churchill or Chamberlain moment.”
At a private meeting last week, two senior Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emeritus, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former No. 2 leader, encouraged their Democratic colleagues to sign a discharge petition that could force the House to vote about the Senate aid package.
Pelosi and Hoyer told Democratic lawmakers that even if they oppose the bill, they could still sign the discharge petition to at least set aside the package — and vote against it later. The leaders’ message was confirmed by two people familiar with the private meeting who were granted anonymity to discuss it.
So far, 195 lawmakers have signed the discharge petition, about a dozen short of the majority needed to force action on the floor. Many of the progressive Democrats who do not want to sign the petition oppose US aid to Israel because of the Netanyahu government’s attack on Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians.
On the right, the House Freedom Caucus said Monday it opposed “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.”
The political division over foreign aid has so far bedeviled Johnson, who rose from the lower ranks of House leadership to become speaker after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was abruptly ousted late last year.
Now Johnson faces the same threat. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia, has increased political pressure on Johnson by threatening to expel him from the House floor if he questions aid to Ukraine.
