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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Johnson moving forward with Ukraine aid bill despite pressure from
hardliners
By Lauren Fox, Haley Talbot, Melanie Zanona and Michelle Shen, CNN
Updated:
12:36 AM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
Source: CNN
Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday he is sticking with his plan
to put a series of foreign aid bills on the floor, including funding
for , after facing significant pressure from hardliners.
“After significant Member feedback and discussion, the House Rules
Committee will be posting soon today the text of three bills that will
fund America’s national security interests and allies in Israel, the
Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, including a loan structure for aid, and
enhanced strategy and accountability,” Johnson said in the note.
The three-part supplemental package looks strikingly similar to the
Senate’s bill in several key ways including that the package includes
a little more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and other
conflict zones around the world, which had been a red line for
Democrats.
The bills, taken together, also add up to about $95 billion in aid –
the same amount the Senate bill included – with an adjustment that
$10 billion in Ukraine economic assistance is in the form of a
repayable loan. This specific assistance is the kind of direct payment
that helps Ukraine’s government continue to function during a war.
Those loans are through approximately $7.9 billion in economic
assistance to Ukraine and another $1.6 billion in assistance for
Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, requiring the president to strike an
agreement with Kyiv to repay the funding. The administration could
cancel the debt if they choose to, according to a source familiar.
Overall, the bill will send $61 billion to Ukraine and regional
partners, $23 billion of which will go to replenishing US stockpiles.
It will also include $26 billion to Israel and $8 billion to the
Indo-Pacific, according to a from the House Appropriations Committee.
The fight over the bills – and the potential for right-wing members
of the GOP to attempt to oust Johnson over it – adds up to the most
intense pressure that the speaker has faced over his future in his
short time in the role. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on Tuesday said
he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate,
which would boot Johnson from the speakership if it passed, leading the
speaker to defiantly tell reporters that he would not be resigning.
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” why the foreign aid
packages weren’t broken up months ago, given Ukraine’s , Johnson
said that it takes “a long time to socialize and build consensus when
you have the smallest majority in US history.”
“Look, we know what the timetable is,” he added. “We know the
urgency in Ukraine and in Israel, and we are going to stand by Israel,
our close ally and dear friend, and we’re going to stand for freedom
and make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn’t March through Europe.”
Johnson appeared unfazed by threats to oust him, insisting he doesn’t
“walk around thinking about the motion to vacate.”
“It’s a procedural matter here that I think has been abused in
recent times,” he said. “Maybe at some point we change that, but
right now, I got to do my job, and so do all my colleagues.”
Johnson under pressure
The loan structure around aid comes after a meeting and news conference
with Johnson and former President Donald Trump, . That weekend, Johnson
earned full-throated support from Trump at a perilous time in his
speakership.
Johnson had announced Monday evening the House will take up separate
bills this week to provide aid for Israel and Ukraine, heeding demands
from the far right to keep the issues separate. But the final product
is expected to be lumped together as one big package that will be sent
to the Senate, according to sources familiar. The House can do this
though an arcane procedure, something that is enraging the right wing
of the Republican party but it’s what Democrats have been insisting
on as a condition of their support.
The speaker has been facing mounting pressure to make tweaks to the
foreign aid package proposed earlier this week – and not just from
his most right-wing members. While conservative House Freedom caucus
members have been sounding the alarm on border security and the foreign
aid bills since Tuesday’s caucus meeting, the shouts have now spilled
into the rank and file.
Moderate New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis on Wednesday told
the speaker “go back to Biden & Schumer and tell them he needs a
border security measure to pass foreign aid.” Johnson said in his
letter to members that he will bring forward an immigration bill that
looks like the House’s HR 2.
A number of far-right House Republicans have been quick to shoot down
the border bill that Johnson announced would be included with the
foreign aid bills expected to be voted on Saturday, dispelling any hope
that the border provisions would placate the speaker’s right flank.
In an embarrassing defeat for Johnson on Wednesday evening, the House
Rules Committee failed to pass a rule on the GOP border security bill,
with Republicans threatening to vote against the measure in committee.
Moderate GOP Rep. Mike Lawler called on Massie, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and
South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman to resign from the panel, accusing
them of blocking the speaker’s agenda.
“The three members who refuse to support the Speaker’s agenda
should resign from the Rules Committee immediately. If they refuse,
they should be removed immediately. They are there on behalf of the
conference, not themselves,” Lawler said in a
The border bill, which includes the core provisions of another House
passed border package that remains dead in the Senate, was seen as a
messaging exercise by Johnson in an attempt to placate his colleagues
demands on the border, and it clearly does not appear to be working.
Greene, who is leading the effort to oust Johnson, said on X: “You
are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills
dependent on Democrats. Everyone sees through this.”
Conservative hardliners were quickly fuming at Johnson for his decision
to move ahead with billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and loudly
warning him it could cost him his job.
An angry Roy said he is “very disappointed” in the speaker, and he
is “past the point of giving grace.”
“I need a little bit more time today, but it is not good,” Roy said
when asked by CNN if it is time for him to get out of office.
Firebrand Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called Johnson’s decision to move
ahead with the foreign aid bills as tantamount to “surrender,”
vowing to vote against the package and work hard to pressure others to
not support the move. Other Republicans also expressed anger and
wouldn’t rule out voting against Johnson on procedural motions that
could upend the bill.
In a first key test of the measures, the House Rules Committee will
meet Thursday morning to advance Johnson’s plans for the foreign aid
package. However, the three hardliners on the panel who blocked the
border security bill Wednesday have also threatened to oppose a rule on
the foreign aid bill.
Democrats could be needed
With Republicans only controlling the House by a razor-thin margin,
Johnson will likely need Democrats to pass the foreign aid bills –
and save his job should the motion to vacate come to the floor.
House Democrats are waiting to weigh in on precisely how much they will
help with procedural votes on the aid package until they see if it
includes a must-have item for them: $9 billion in humanitarian aid to
Gaza and other conflict zones around the globe. The billions in
humanitarian aid includes not just money for Gaza but for Sudan, Haiti
and other areas that Democrats have been quick to point out.
During a caucus meeting on Tuesday, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries
told his caucus they would not accept “one penny” less of
humanitarian aid.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered his first explicit
endorsement of the plan offered up by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I strongly support this package to get critical support to Israel
and Ukraine, provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to
Palestinians in Gaza, and bolster security and stability in the
Indo-Pacific. Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and
Ukraine is facing continued bombardment from Russia that has
intensified dramatically in the last month,” Biden said in a
statement.
The state of the battlefield in Ukraine is beginning to “shift a bit
… in Russia’s favor,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told
lawmakers on Wednesday as he urged for passage of the supplemental aid
package for Ukraine.
“In terms of, you know, what happens going forward and how long
Ukraine will be able to sustain its efforts, I think we’re already
seeing things on the battlefield begin to shift a bit in in terms of in
Russia’s favor,” Austin told the House Defense Appropriations
subcommittee.
However, House Democrats are divided over whether they would try and
save Johnson , with institutionalists insisting that voting against
a motion to vacate could protect the body from devolving into chaos
mere months before a presidential election. Progressive members,
meanwhile, warn that helping Johnson now could ultimately undermine
the party with its base, which already may be less than enthusiastic
about showing up at the polls in November.
Democratic Reps. and Jared Moskowitz have said publicly they would
not support an attempt to oust Johnson, but other Democrats –
including one who held the same job as Johnson – aren’t ready to
make that kind of commitment.
“Let’s just hope that that does not happen, and that we can do our
responsibilities, protect and defend our own democracy as we protect
theirs,” said.
If Johnson is indeed ousted, it could plunge the House into chaos once
again, with zero legislation getting on the floor until a new speaker
is elected.
This story has been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.
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