Senate

McConnell, Speaker Johnson divide sharply on year-end strategy

by Alexander Bolton - 11/02/23 6:00 AM ET

New Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at a meeting with the Senate GOP conference Wednesday laid out his stark differences with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over key elements of the year-end strategy, signaling the challenges the two leaders face in the weeks ahead.

Johnson rejected McConnell’s arguments, made in private and public, that U.S. aid to Israel should be tied to military aid to Ukraine, security assistance for Taiwan and provisions to boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Speaker insisted to GOP senators that Israel aid will have move separately from Ukraine funding, arguing that it couldn’t otherwise pass the House.

But Johnson threw a bone to McConnell, Congress’s leading Republican proponent of supporting the war in Ukraine, by pledging to GOP senators that he would bring a separate Ukraine aid package to the House floor after House lawmakers approve an Israel-only bill later this week.

“It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t intend to leave Ukraine behind, and that’s reassuring to those of us that support Ukraine funding,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters after the meeting.

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“But there’s also going to be a price to be paid on the border, and it’s not just going to be on money. It’s going to be on policy that Democrats have refused to do in the past,” Cornyn said.

He said, however, that Johnson did not provide a timeline for passing Ukraine funding through the House, though the Speaker promised it would be “inextricably intertwined” with border security reforms.

Johnson’s position could ultimately delay Ukraine funding for weeks or even months, given how far apart Republicans and Democrats are on changing asylum law and other immigration reforms that Republicans are demanding.

McConnell didn’t say anything during the meeting, GOP senators said.

“I think it’s interesting; I assume it’s because they’re not on the same page in terms of how to bundle Ukraine funding,” said a Republican senator, who requested anonymity to talk about the meeting.

Johnson recognized McConnell at the meeting but kept his comments about his fellow GOP leader cordial and brief.

“McConnell didn’t say a word the whole time,” said a second GOP senator. “Johnson acknowledged him at one point briefly, in a nice way.”

Conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who was filling in for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) as chair of the weekly Senate Republican Steering Committee lunch, introduced Speaker Johnson at the meeting.

The Speaker then proceeded to lay out his strategy for moving Israel aid separately from Ukraine money and for funding the federal government into 2024.

The newly minted Speaker floated the possibility of passing a stopgap measure that would fund the government until Jan. 15. He also floated the possibility of a stopgap funding government until March or even mid-April.

Those suggestions were music to the ears of conservatives who want to push for another round of steep spending cuts in the election year, but didn’t appear to gain any traction with McConnell or his allies on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

McConnell has made it a priority to move the 12 annual appropriations bills in timely fashion under regular order to avoid the possibility that Congress will have to default to a lengthy stopgap measure that would freeze government funding at current levels.

McConnell, a senior member of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, has made it clear that he wants to boost defense spending at a time when the United States facing growing threats from Russia, China and Iran.

The Kentucky senator as early as February endorsed Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) call for “substantial defense increases.”

“The defense budget ought to reflect the nature of the threat,” McConnell argued at the time, citing “not only Russia and Ukraine” but also “the ongoing challenge of meeting China in the future.”

Senate defense hawks fear that a continuing resolution lasting until January or even as late as April could result in a more prolonged spending stalemate.

If Congress can’t pass the appropriations bills for fiscal 2024 by April, then defense and nondefense programs would face an automatic across-the-board spending cut because of a provision championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that was included in legislation to raise the federal debt limit in June.

Johnson at Wednesday’s meeting repeatedly insisted that he couldn’t pass aid for Israel through the House if it’s attached to money for Ukraine.

“He just said over and over, ‘Listen, for me, it’s just numbers. We cannot do them together,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), recalling the discussion with Johnson. “He wants to do Israel first, and then he said their next order of business would actually be Ukraine-border [security].”

McConnell, however, cast doubt Tuesday on Johnson’s strategy of moving Israel money by itself, even though he acknowledged many Republicans share the Speaker’s view.

The Senate GOP leader emphasized that the bill would need the support of Senate Democrats and President Biden to become law, and both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Biden have stressed the importance of funding Ukraine and Israel together.

“In order to make a law, it has to pass both bodies and be signed by the president. And we’ll see if the bill comes out of the House, and what margin it has,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday. “My own view … is that we need to treat all four of these areas, all four of them: Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the border.”

The White House issued a statement of administrative policy Tuesday warning the president would veto the House stand-alone Israel bill.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said the legislation “inserts partisanship into support for Israel.”

Johnson told senators that the House plans to pass its Israel bill Friday.

Sen. Johnson called on McConnell and other Republicans to embraces the Speaker’s position on Israel funding.

“He can’t pass anything else in the House with Republican votes. That’s what he can do. And if he wants to remain Speaker — and I’d like him to remain Speaker — that’s the reality we have to recognize and we should be supporting him and not undermining him,” he said.