After debating whether to risk his job amid new threats, President Mike Johnson is moving forward with a foreign aid plan that includes separate votes on money for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
In a last-minute decision, he will add a fifth bill that includes elements of the House Republican-only border security bill that already passed last year, Johnson texted his conference Wednesday. tomorrow.
The package in total would offer $26 billion to Israel, $60 billion to Ukraine and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific, a mix of military and humanitarian aid. It is made up of four separate bills, one for each region.
Israel’s security bill will offer $4 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and billions more for weapons, artillery and ammunition systems, as well as an additional $2.4 billion for U.S. operations in the region.
Nine billion dollars of that bill goes toward humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.
President Biden said he “strongly” supports the foreign aid package. “Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine is facing continued bombing by Russia that has escalated dramatically over the past month,” he said in a statement.
After debating whether to risk his job amid new threats, President Mike Johnson is moving forward with a foreign aid plan that includes separate votes on money for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
Ukraine’s bill includes $23 billion to replenish U.S. reserves that have been depleted for the fight in Russia. Some $11 billion would go toward U.S. military operations in the region and $14 billion would go toward the acquisition of advanced weapons systems. Another $26 million would go toward oversight and accountability of equipment delivered to Ukraine.
Two separate funds of economic assistance worth $7.85 billion and $1.58 billion would also be offered to Ukraine under a loan structure. The president has broad authority over the terms of the loan and could forgive half after November 15, 2024 and the other half after January 1, 2026.
A fourth bill includes several measures, such as requiring TikTok to divest from its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets, and a lend-lease program for military aid to Ukraine.
Johnson has planned a vote Saturday night to give members more than three days to read the package’s text, a day after Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher’s planned last day in Congress and his majority shrinks to 217- 213, which only allows him to lose. a Republican vote on partisan legislation.
Gallagher’s office now says he has “flexibility” to stay through Saturday.
The four bills were supposed to be grouped under the same “rule” to bring them to the House floor for final approval this week before moving to the Senate.
The fifth bill will be presented under a separate rule. That bill is an olive branch to conservatives who were furious that after months of promising not to secure Ukraine’s border before the United States’, he failed to add a border component to the foreign aid package.
Normally only the majority party, the Republicans, votes in favor of the law. But Johnson will need Democrats to pass the foreign aid rule and some members of his own party tasked with stopping any future aid to Ukraine.
Democrats have signaled they will support the foreign aid rule, but are likely to oppose the border rule.
Hardline conservatives, including Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are unhappy with the separate vote on the bill. border law and have already said they would oppose the foreign aid rule.
The House already passed his Republican border bill, HR 2, last year and it died in the Senate. The new bill could easily suffer the same fate.
The fourth bill includes a provision involving the REPO Act, meaning it would confiscate Russian assets that have so far only been frozen, and another involving the Lend-Lease Act, which would require Ukraine to return US military assets it are not destroyed. at war.
Johnson noted that much of the bill will not go directly to any country, but will instead serve to replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles for Ukraine and Israel. The United States was heavily involved in defending Israel against Iran’s 300 missile attacks over the weekend.
Massie said Tuesday that he would join Greene in her motion to remove Johnson from chairing her foreign aid plan.
This photo taken on April 17, 2024 shows a destroyed district in Mariupol, in Russian-controlled Ukraine, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Police officers stand watch near the site of a missile attack in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on April 17, 2024.
“He’s going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy,” Massie told reporters of the movement to overthrow the president. McCarthy, who is close to Massie, was ousted from the presidency by eight members of the Republican Party last fall.
But Johnson told reporters after Massie’s threats: ‘I’m not going to resign. “It is, in my opinion, an absurd notion,” he said of the motion to annul.
“I consider myself a wartime orator,” Johnson said of the newly revitalized mission to overthrow him. “I didn’t think this would be an easy road.”
Massie recalled former President John Boehner, who resigned when it became clear he would be overthrown in 2015.
‘I’m trying to persuade him to resign, as John Boehner did at a future date. “That gives us time to go to conference and elect a replacement,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters.
Massie suggested he would not make the resolution privileged, forcing a vote in two days. “I don’t control the timeline,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll survive more than two or three more months.”
Intelligence experts have issued dire warnings that Ukraine desperately needs help in its fight against Russia.
Republican leaders concerned about national security are in Johnson’s other ear, demanding that he bring the aid to the floor immediately.
“We must approve aid to Ukraine now,” read a joint statement from Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner and Democrat Jim Himes. “Today, in a classified briefing, our committee was informed of the critical need to provide aid to Ukraine this week.”
“The situation in Ukraine on the ground is critical,” they added.
‘We have no time to waste when it comes to our national security. We need to pass this relief package this week,’ reads a joint statement from Turner, Secretary of State Michael McCaul, Chairman of the Armed Services Mike Rogers, Chairman of Appropriations Tom Cole and Chairman of Defense Appropriations, Ken Calvert.