House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a bipartisan Senate proposal to provide aid to Ukraine and other foreign allies on Monday.
A Senate bill that would provide billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine and Israel is on track to pass through the upper chamber early Tuesday morning, but Johnson is making it clear he will not bring the bill to the House floor, since it lacks the tougher border security measures with Mexico that House Republicans demanded months ago.
[In] the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.
However, Ukraine supporters in both parties could bypass Johnson and force the withdrawal of additional foreign aid through a discharge petition that would require bipartisan support. On the other hand, if the petition is used for the Senate foreign aid package, a number of progressives are likely to withdraw their names in protest of including military aid to Israel without conditions, meaning that more Republican Party signatures will be needed.
Another option is for Republican leaders to include foreign aid provisions in the mandatory government spending bills that Congress will have to consider in early March.
Johnson initially insisted that any new funding for Kyiv be accompanied by tough new border security measures to address the migrant crisis. House Republicans then helped defeat a bipartisan border security deal negotiated in the Senate that conservatives considered too lenient.
Afterwards, they shifted their focus to the White House, arguing that Biden alone should fix the crisis through executive orders. House of Representatives member Chip Roy, R-Texas, declared:
“The president has the ability right now – the power – to stop it… But he chooses not to because this is all a sham and it’s purposeful.It’s a purposeful effort to dilute our society, and to undermine our way of life – to destroy Western civilization.”
Despite the tumultuous political dynamics, Johnson continues to press the Senate as the debate over aid to Ukraine hangs over his Speaker’s position.
House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border. [T]he Senate has failed to meet the moment.
