It all comes down to this.
After months of fighting between the parties, across the chambers and within the House Republican conference, the lower chamber is poised Saturday to approve a massive new round of foreign aid, combining billions of dollars in military help for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with billions more in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and other war zones around the globe.
Passage would mark a huge victory for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who had rejected a Senate-passed foreign-aid package in February and has agonized since then over how to move the more conservative version he promised through the House in the face of fierce opposition from hardliners occupying his animated right flank.
The legislation he’s proposed attempts to thread a delicate needle, keeping much of the Senate proposal intact — in order to secure crucial Democratic support — while adding a series of Republican national security priorities designed to temper the conservative outcry. Those GOP provisions, combined into their own package, include new sanctions on Iran; efforts to reduce the impact of the aid package on deficit spending; and a potential ban on TikTok amid concerns over the blockbuster company’s ties to China’s Communist Party.
To sweeten the deal further, Johnson has split the package into four distinct pieces, each scheduled to receive a separate vote — a design that’s won praise from lawmakers in both parties who have supported parts of the Senate bill but not others. Johnson’s piecemeal approach grants them the opportunity to go on record supporting their favored aid provisions while rejecting those they oppose.
Still, the Speaker’s decision to champion new foreign aid has come with stark political risks, infuriating conservatives who were already up in arms over his willingness to cut deals with President Biden on big-ticket legislation like extending federal funding and reauthorizing government surveillance powers.
House advances Ukraine, Israel aid as Dems help Speaker Johnson, GOP
The debate has not sparked a direct challenge to Johnson’s gavel. But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) last month had introduced a resolution to remove him from power — a motion since endorsed by two other GOP lawmakers — and it remains unclear if passage of the Ukraine aid will prompt her to force the measure to the floor for a vote.
The House gavels in at 9 a.m. to begin what is sure to be a fiery floor debate, with voting expected to begin at around 1 p.m. On the schedule are a series of amendments, that will each receive a separate vote; the border bill, which is not expected to win the two-thirds majority needed to pass by the procedural vehicle under which it’s moving; and finally the four foreign aid bills: Israel, Indo-Pacific, Ukraine and the grab-all package of national security bills.
Follow along with live updates below.
The House on Saturday approved a series of bills providing tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to embattled U.S. allies overseas, breaking a months-long impasse that bitterly divided Congress and sending the package along to the Senate.
The legislation — marrying military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with humanitarian assistance for Gaza — marked a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who had taken the politically risky step of bringing the proposals to the floor over the objection of hardline conservatives, several of whom want to boot him from power.
That decision has endeared the Speaker to Ukraine’s supporters in both parties, who argued the need for an aggressive strategy to help Kyiv’s beleaguered forces counter Russia’s imperial designs in Europe.
But it’s heightened the tensions between Johnson and his right flank, which was already furious with the Speaker for his willingness to negotiate bipartisan deals with President Biden and felt betrayed that GOP leaders dropped demands for tougher border security.
Click here to read five takeaways from Saturday’s monumental votes.
— Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis
The Senate will hold two votes on Tuesday starting at 1 p.m. to advance a package of foreign aid bills, including military assistance for Ukraine and Israel, which will take Congress a big step closer to delivering assistance that President Biden requested in October.
The foreign aid package passed the House as four separate bills but will move as one piece of legislation through the upper chamber.
The Senate will vote Tuesday on a motion sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to table the bill and then move on to a motion to advance the defense supplemental spending package to a final vote.
Unless opponents of the bill yield back time on the floor, the Senate will vote on final passage Wednesday.
“Earlier today, the House of Representatives at long last approved desperately-needed funding for Ukraine, for Israel, for the Indo Pacific, and for humanitarian assistance. And now it is the Senate’s turn to act,” Schumer said on the floor, announcing the time agreement.
“The Senate now stands ready to take the next step,” he said.
Schumer predicted the bill will pass when it comes before his chamber.
“To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to allies in Israel and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again,” he pledged.
— Alexander Bolton
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lauded the House advancing a set of foreign aid bills.
Noting that the Senate had passed a foreign aid package in November, McConnell wrote that “Today, the House of Representatives finally advanced this essential investment in the strength of our alliances and partnerships, the credibility of our commitments, and the capacity of our own armed forces to defend America and deter aggression.”
“Today’s action moves this critical national security supplemental one step closer to helping America and our friends to meet the most dangerous array of threats in a generation. From the battlefields of Ukraine to the cities and kibbutzes of Israel, and from the Red Sea to the South China Sea, our adversaries are colluding to violently undermine America, our allies, and our global interest.”
He added, “The task before us is urgent. It is once again the Senate’s turn to make history.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ripped Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a “traitor,” after the House passed an Ukraine aid package.
“Zelensky thanks Speaker Mike Johnson (D-Ukraine) for sending $61 BILLION of your hard-earned tax dollars to fuel a foreign war,” she wrote on X. “Johnson once again passed a bill with the help of Democrats while the majority of the Republican majority voted against it. Not only is Mike Johnson a traitor to our conference, he’s a traitor to our country.”
Read full story here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the House and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) after the chamber passed more than $60 billion in aid for his beleaguered forces.
“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it. The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”
Read story here.
President Biden thanked House leadership Saturday for advancing the foreign aid package that will provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies,” commending them for coming together.
“It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia. I want to thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House who voted to put our national security first,” he said in the statement, shared by the White House.
“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” Biden added.
Full statement here.
House lawmakers in both parties joined forces Saturday to send a massive package of foreign aid to the Senate, ending a long and bitter stalemate over the fate of the legislation and all but ensuring the delivery of billions of dollars in new help to embattled allies across the globe.
The rare weekend votes were the culmination of months of fierce debate within the House GOP conference over how — or even if — Congress should step in with another round of military help for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan while providing humanitarian aid for civilian victims in Gaza and other war-torn regions around the globe.
The debate had split House Republicans into warring factions, pitting Reagan-minded traditionalists — who support strong interventions overseas to counter the imperial designs of Russia and China — against a newer brand of “America First” conservative who fought to limit the foreign spending and focus instead on domestic problems, particularly the migrant crisis at the southern border.
In the end, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defied his conservative critics, pushing to the floor a series of four bills providing the overseas assistance but detaching those funds from a separate border security bill, which failed on the floor during Saturday’s votes. He framed the aid as a simple, but crucial, continuation of America’s responsibility to democratic allies under siege from despots.
— Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell
The House has passed aid for Israel 366-58, wrapping up its work on the four-bill foreign aid package.
The House is now voting on $26 billion in aid for Israel.
The House on Saturday passed a bill to send more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine as it battles Russian forces.
The bill was by far the politically riskiest of the four for Johnson, who faced intense opposition from within his own conference.
But it passed in a resounding 311-112-1 vote, with Democrats in unanimous agreement in favor and Republicans split.
As the vote was about to close, Democrats cheered, waved Ukrainian flags and chanted “Ukraine.”
Cheers erupted again when the vote was completed.
All three amendments to the Ukraine aid bill, including one from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to zero out funding in the bill, resoundingly failed.
The House is now voting on the Ukraine aid bill.
It would send about $60 billion to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The House will first take a series of amendment votes, including a proposal to eliminate all non-military funding in the bill and one from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch opponent of Ukraine aid, to reduce each dollar amount to 0.
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to provide aid to Taiwan and Indo-Pacific allies.
The vote was 385-34.
The House is voting on a measure to send $8.1 billion to Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region.
It is the second vote in Johnson’s four-part plan to pass foreign aid.
The House easily passed the first of four bills that are part of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) plan to approve foreign aid.
The bill would ban TikTok in the U.S. if the company fails to divorce its operations from the Chinese Communist Party, and install new sanctions on Iran — an idea that’s gained steam since Tehran’s strikes on Israel last weekend.
The package also includes several provisions designed to ease the financial burden on U.S. taxpayers, providing some of the new Ukraine aid in the form of a loan — although a forgivable one — and empowering the administration to tap seized Russian assets to help pay the enormous costs of Ukrainian reconstruction.
The vote was 360-58.