The House teed up a weekend vote on $95 billion in US military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as other humanitarian funding, after Democrats helped Republicans overcome an effort by rebel GOP members to block the assistance.
The lower chamber overwhelmingly approved a rule Friday to clear the way for a Saturday vote on final passage of four separate national security bills.
The 316-94 tally included “yea” votes from 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans, while 39 Democrats and 55 Republicans opposed the rule.
The bills to be voted on Saturday set aside $60.84 billion for Ukraine, with nearly 80% of that amount going toward replenishing US munitions; a $26.38 billion funding bill for Israel, with $9 billion of that going toward humanitarian aid in war-torn regions worldwide; and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, about half of which is set aside for Taiwan.
“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,” President Biden said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The House must pass the package this week and the Senate should quickly follow. I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had both pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pass a $95 billion bill approved by the Senate in February.
But that legislation had provided all the supplemental funding in a single bill and House Republicans made several additions to their package that will require Senate approval if the legislation passes on Saturday.
“We broke it into separate pieces so that in the House, everyone can vote up or down on their merits,” Johnson said on “The Mark Levin Show” Thursday night.
“Some of the other innovations are things that we all believe, that the loan concept [for Ukraine], you know, that’s something that [former] President [Donald] Trump has championed. We added that into this so that the Ukrainian funding that goes to support anything related to the government is a loan instead of a gift.”
The packaged rule includes another bill slapping sanctions on Russia and the freezing and repurposing of $5 billion in its sovereign assets to benefit Ukraine.
Further sanctions in the bill would be imposed on Iranian oil shipments and those who support the Islamic Republic’s terrorist proxies like Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed around 1,200 people, including 33 American citizens.
China would also be sanctioned and the state-owned company ByteDance forced to divest its ownership of the popular social media app TikTok, in a reworking of a House bill that already passed last month.
The rare move by the minority party to step in on the procedural motion underscores the importance of securing the foreign aid to US lawmakers of both parties — and the peril Johnson faces from his right flank for bringing it to the floor.
The speaker is facing a potential motion to vacate his speakership brought by far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) last month and signed onto by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) earlier this week.
“My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job.”
“History judges us for what we do — this is a critical time right now,” he said. “I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten; I believe that [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] and [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil.”
“I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed; I think he might go to the Balkans next; I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies,” he stressed.
“To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys.”
Democrats had also helped advance the measures out of the House Rules Committee late Thursday over the objections of Massie and fellow Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-SC).
Much of the opposition in the House to the national security legislation has focused on the decision to prioritize foreign aid over US border security, as record-breaking numbers of migrants illegally enter the US and strain benefit programs.
Others have flatly opposed aid to Ukraine, arguing further assistance would prolong the conflict and get in the way of peace talks with Russia.
If Greene privileges her motion to vacate, she could plunge the House into another speakership conflict, only seven months after the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
