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Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday, after Iran’s overnight attack on Israel, that the House would vote on aid to Israel in the coming days and suggested aid to Ukraine could be included in the bill.
“House Republicans and Republicans understand the need to support Israel,” Johnson said on Fox News, noting that he had previously introduced two aid bills to support America’s allies. “We’re going to try again this week and the details of that package are currently being finalized. We’re currently looking at our options and all of these supplementary issues.”
U.S. funding for both Israel and Ukraine has stalled in Congress. Mr. Johnson initially refused to accept a $95 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan passed by the Senate, which also refused to accept a House Republican proposal that would have made aid to Israel conditional on domestic spending cuts. did.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly vowed in recent weeks to ensure the House of Commons moves to help Ukraine. He has sought ways to craft a foreign aid package that can secure critical mass support amid strong Republican resistance to sending aid to Kiev and growing opposition within Democrats to unfettered military aid to Israel. Ta.
But the Iranian attack has ratcheted up pressure on Mr Johnson to bring some policy to the floor this week, potentially forcing him to make a decision he has been agonizing over for weeks.
He left it unclear Sunday whether aid to Ukraine would be included in the bill he said the House would pass this week.
Johnson said he believes some proposals for aid to Ukraine have broad support among House Republicans. He spoke with former President Donald J. Trump at his Florida mansion on Friday and said Trump supported conditioning the aid as a loan.
“I think these are ideas that we can get consensus on, and that’s what we’ve been working on,” Johnson said. “Send the package. We’re going to put something together and send it to the Senate to complete these obligations.”
Before last weekend’s attack on Israel, Mr. Johnson privately floated a $95 billion spending package for Ukraine and Israel that passed the Senate in February and sent it to the House of Commons alongside a second bill containing the policies approved by Congress. He was surfacing to let it pass. Conservative wing of his party. The plan envisioned two back-to-back votes on the Senate-passed bill and a sweetener package aimed at placating Republicans enraged by Mr. Johnson’s decision to push through a bipartisan aid package for Ukraine.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the two conflicts are linked and he wants them to be addressed together. “What happened last night in Israel is happening every night in Ukraine,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Mr McCaul said he had received a “commitment” from Mr Johnson to bring a wide-ranging national security bill to the House of Commons for a vote, but the timing was uncertain.
“My preference is this week,” he said.
Kim Min Ho Contributed to the report.
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