Bipartisan group pitches border-Ukraine bill as ‘pressure point’ on GOP leaders

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is amplifying its calls for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to stage a vote on legislation linking foreign military aid with domestic border security, framing that combination as the only recipe for getting Ukraine assistance through a deeply divided Congress.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the lead sponsor of the legislation, said he’s working directly with Johnson’s office to get the package to the House floor through regular channels. But if the Speaker refuses to comply, then the bill’s supporters will begin the process of gathering signatures — beginning as early as this week — on a procedural tool, known as a discharge petition, to force the bill to the floor.

“If the House cannot come to a consensus on a bill to be put on the floor, the alternative can’t be that Ukraine fails and our border remains open. We can’t allow that to happen,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday morning during a press briefing in the Capitol. “So this is not a workaround of anyone or any post. This is a pressure point, to try to apply pressure to force something to the floor.”

The effort is a longshot. Discharge petitions rarely work — the last successful effort was in 2015 — and party leaders on both sides of the aisle have put up early roadblocks. 

Former President Trump, for instance, is opposed to any new Ukraine aid or border security measures before November’s elections — a stance popular among House conservatives. And some House Democratic leaders have already rejected Fitzpatrick’s policy blueprint, preferring a bipartisan Senate-passed proposal providing foreign aid without the border language. 

Still, Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package maintain that it represents Congress’s last best chance of getting aid for Kyiv to President Biden’s desk this year. 

“It is an unsustainable argument, either in the short-term or the long-term, that we’re going to defend the borders of our foreign allies but not our own,” Fitzpatrick said, highlighting the central barrier facing the Senate bill.

Fitzpatrick said his discharge petition will mature Friday, meaning lawmakers can begin to endorse it, and he’s “very confident” it can win the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill.

His petition was designed to bring the bill to the floor without going through the House Rules Committee, where conservatives would likely block it. And it allows for one sweeping “substitute” amendment that will empower lawmakers in both parties to make changes — some of them major — before the final vote.

Fitzpatrick acknowledged, for instance, that most Democrats would not support the proposal as it stands because it excludes humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza — a provision he’d like to see added — while Republicans will likely demand more funding to grant Border Patrol agents with more powers to execute migrant expulsions.

“This is a bare-bones version of where the points of intersection between Democrats and Republicans are,” he said. “This will not be the final bill text.”

Behind Fitzpatrick and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), the bipartisan group had introduced its legislative package last month as an alternative approach to a Senate-passed bill featuring aid for Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, but without provisions to strengthen the U.S. border.

Although the Senate bill had won the support of 22 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the appetite for more Ukraine aid has waned within the GOP over the two years since Russia’s invasion, and Trump has led the charge in opposition to any new assistance before November’s elections.

Trump’s position has been embraced by a number of House conservatives, who either oppose Ukraine aid outright or won’t support it without the accompanying provisions to strengthen security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Johnson has so far sided with the conservatives, refusing to consider the Senate-passed bill while continuing to insist on the strict border measures contained in a Republican immigration bill, H.R. 2, which passed through the House last year but is a non-starter with Democrats.

Fitzpatrick said he’s been in direct conversations with both Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) about his intentions for the discharge petition. But conservatives aren’t the only barrier he’s facing as he eyes endorsements for his discharge petition. 

Liberals are up-in-arms over the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, with some opposed to even the Senate bill because it provides more weapons for Israel. Other Democrats, especially those in the Hispanic Caucus, are likely to balk at the tougher border provisions, particularly a “remain in Mexico” stipulation that had previously been adopted under the Trump administration.

Last week, Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, shot down the Ukraine-border proposal, arguing that the resolution to the impasse has already been sent over from the upper chamber.

“The solution is incredibly clear. It is the bipartisan solution that has 70 votes out of the United States Senate,” Aguilar said.

Yet the highest barrier to Ukraine aid remains Trump and the House conservatives who are pressing Johnson to oppose any foreign aid package before Trump’s potential return to the White House. It’s a dynamic that hasn’t been lost on Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package.

“I think he wants to get to a yes, here,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s in a very tough political position in our conference. That’s no secret, you all write about it every day, and it’s true.

“He’s in a tough political situation.”