Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated he won’t put the Senate legislation to a vote in the House, leaving proponents scrambling to find a path to passage.
- Share full article
Speaker Mike Johnson suggested he would not allow the aid package to receive a vote on the House floor.
A buzz saw of Republican opposition in the House is threatening to kill the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel that the Senate overwhelmingly passed early Tuesday, leaving proponents of the emergency aid legislation scrounging for unorthodox ways to push the bill over the finish line.
Hours before the Senate approved the bill in a lopsided 70-to-29 vote, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested he would not allow the aid package to receive a vote on the House floor. The measure would provide an additional $60.1 billion for Kyiv — which would bring the total U.S. investment in the war effort to more than $170 billion — as well as $14.1 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas and almost $10 billion for humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Palestinians in Gaza.
“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,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Monday night, adding: “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.”
Earlier this month, Mr. Johnson rejected a bipartisan border bill crafted in the Senate, saying the crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border needed to be more severe.
Senators often hope that an overwhelming vote on a bill in their chamber will push the House to take up its legislation. And hours after the Senate approved the aid package, President Biden sought to ratchet up pressure on Mr. Johnson, urging him from the White House to bring the bill “to the floor immediately.”
“I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind, and not allow the minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on,” Mr. Biden said.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
