Six months after it began in earnest, the battle on Capitol Hill over whether to send more aid to Ukraine to defend itself against an unprovoked invasion by Russia could finally be coming to an end.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday unveiled a bill to provide $60.8 billion in military and economic aid to the embattled country, ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday. The measure would be one of three aid packages; the second would be a bill to help Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza, and the third would help strengthen the defense of Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region against China.
The bills, first announced Monday night but details of which were not released until Wednesday, could also set the clock ticking on how long Johnson will keep his job as speaker — a prospect the Louisiana congressman said he was not afraid of.
“My philosophy is you do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“To put it bluntly, I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than to American guys,” Johnson added. “This is not a game. It’s not a joke.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who introduced a motion to impeach Johnson in March but has delayed voting on it, signaled Wednesday that she was not ready to pull the trigger.
“We don’t want the chaos that happened last time and we need an organized process if we do that,” Greene told reporters late in the day.
In October, after eight Republicans voted with all Democrats to remove former California Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, Republicans saw the House paralyzed for three weeks as they tried in vain to agree on a successor. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is backing Greene’s efforts, has said Johnson should name a date when he will resign to give the party time to arrange his replacement.
All three bills enjoy broad bipartisan support, although Republicans are expected to back the Israeli measure more strongly, while Democrats will provide the bulk of votes for Ukraine.
The battle over whether Ukraine should receive more aid on top of the roughly $70 billion in aid it has received from the United States since the Russian invasion in February 2022 has been raging since the fall of 2023.
Initially, the White House requested a much smaller package as part of a planned series of packages. But as the war in Ukraine became increasingly unpopular with Republican voters, Republicans in Congress became increasingly reluctant to support what had been a bipartisan issue for a few months.
In September, McCarthy, then speaker, cut $6 billion in war funding from an emergency bill just before the government was to shut down. This move challenged Democrats to either insist on including funding for Ukraine or take the blame for shutting down the government when Republicans refused; or to acquiesce and try to get the money approved later, after Republicans demanded that the US stop setting aside money for Ukraine unless Congress also enacts new immigration restrictions. The Democrats blinked.
In February, Senate Democrats took up the challenge of passing border reform and passed a border bill negotiated by Sen. Jim Lankford (R-Okla.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) as a bipartisan bill. come into question. . But Republicans, acting at the behest of presidential candidate Donald Trump, blocked the bill, fearing it would hand Biden an election-year victory.
The Senate then passed a $95 billion aid package along bipartisan lines, bundling military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with humanitarian aid for Gaza.
The House Republican Party’s new proposal essentially unbundles the elements of the Senate bill so they can be voted on separately, and adds a fourth element in the form of a national security bill. Johnson said the split will allow members of the House of Representatives to vote their conscience on individual parts.
The White House has approved the three foreign aid bills. “The House must pass the package this week and the Senate must follow suit quickly. I will immediately sign this into law to send a message to the world: we stand with our friends, and we will not let Iran or Russia succeed,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Razom for Ukraine, an advocacy group, also supported Johnson’s Ukraine bill. “Our message to the House today is simple: vote yes. Ukraine has no time for Congress to waste,” said Mykola Murskyj, director of advocacy at Razom.
The three House relief bills have a few new wrinkles compared to the Senate package. This would require the non-military aid in the bill to be structured as a loan, although that loan could be forgiven in the future. It would require the administration to submit a strategy document to Congress to help Ukraine win, complete with annual estimates of expected costs.
And it was unclear whether the bills, while they will be voted on separately, would be rebundled before being sent to the Senate. That could potentially complicate matters.
But opponents of aid to Ukraine were already pessimistic about their prospects on Wednesday.
“I don’t think we should go into November having completely capitulated at the border, shrugging our shoulders and saying, ‘Oh, well, I hope Trump will save us,’ while completely abdicating our Article 1 powers to do this to hold the president accountable. ” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas.)
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, expressed disappointment that the House would remain in session for two additional days this week to vote on bills “to defend the borders of other countries, to borrow that we don’t have.” We don’t need to send abroad, not to defend our borders and do it with predominantly Democratic votes.”
“That’s a big failure, a big disappointment,” he said.
