Johnson signals that he will not put the Senate’s supplementary proposal on the floor, despite increased pressure

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday did not indicate he would bring the Senate-approved supplemental foreign aid package to the floor this week, despite growing pressure from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers to do so later. Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel.

During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson noted that House members were putting together details for a new package.

“We will try again this week and the details of that package are being worked out now,” he said. “We are looking at the options and all these complementary issues.”

O The House initially passed its GOP-led Israel support package days after Johnson was elected speaker of the House in October. The package, which combined $14.3 billion in aid to Israel with cuts to IRS funding, was considered dead upon reaching the Democratic-led Senate and President. Joe Biden promised to veto it.

Then, in February, the House failed to pass a stand-alone Israel aid bill without IRS cuts, with many Republicans voting with Democrats to defeat the effort.

That same month, the Senate approved a $95 billion national security package that included aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but Johnson rejected the deal after quashing a bipartisan effort in the Senate to address security at the U.S.-Mexico border. . And under pressure from hard-line GOP supporters who warned him that tying Ukraine aid to the bill could be detrimental to his presidency, Johnson has not yet addressed aid to the country city of war months later.

On Sunday, the Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the “best” way to help Israel was to “pass the supplement this week.”

“I asked President Johnson to do this,” he added during a press conference in New York, following a phone call between Biden and the four congressional leaders, including Johnson. “There was a consensus over the phone among all the leaders that we had to help Israel and we had to help Ukraine, and now we hope we can resolve that and get it done next week.”

The call included Biden, Johnson, Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to a Schumer aide. Biden has emphasized the urgency of approving a foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine and pressed Johnson to put it to a vote later this week, but it is unclear whether the speaker will do so, said an administration source familiar with the discussion.

Asked on Sunday if he is considering former President Donald Trump’s idea of ​​turning aid to Ukraine into a loanJohnson praised his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Fridaysaying they are “100% united on these big agenda items.”

“When talking about aid to Ukraine, he introduced the concept of lease-lending, which is really important, I think, has a lot of consensus,” he said, adding that seizing the assets of a “corrupt Russian oligarchy” to help finance the Ukrainian resistance is also among the ideas he considers can reach consensus.

“And that’s what we’re working on,” he said. “We will submit our package, put something together and send it to the Senate and fulfill those obligations.”

McConnell, R-Ky., on Saturday urged Congress to pass the supplemental military aid package that has been delayed for months. McConnell said the US must support Israel after Iran launched retaliatory strikes against the country in response to the Israeli bombing of its consular building in Syria that killed two of Tehran’s top military leaders.

“We cannot hope to deter conflict without demonstrating resolve and seriously investing in American strength. The Commander in Chief and Congress must fulfill our fundamental duties without delay,” he said of the package linking aid to Ukraine and Israel. “The consequences of failure are clear, devastating and avoidable.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said Sunday that he expects the House to pass the long-stalled supplemental military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan this week with “overwhelming support.” .

“Ukraine is beginning to lose the ability to defend itself and the United States must step up and provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs,” he said during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“I think we’ll see overwhelming support for this in the House this week,” he added.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he hopes the U.S. can provide aid to Ukraine and fund border security at the same time.

“I for one am prepared to help Ukraine, but I want to see us deal with the southern border. And that was the negotiation, that was the conversation, that was the agreement. That’s what was going to happen and it didn’t happen,” he said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “What they created was unacceptable when it came to the border, but I continue to support aid to Ukraine. But I’m a huge, and even bigger, advocate of helping America as a U.S. senator. And so I hope those two things can happen.”

Johnson, who promised to approve new aid to Ukraine, are under scrutiny from members of a slim Republican majority. GOP hardliners like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have criticized Johnson, arguing that funding would be better allocated elsewhere.

Greene, who filed a “motion to vacate” to remove Johnson but did not proceed to a vote to remove him, arguing that Congress should turn its attention and allocate funding to the southern border instead of Ukraine.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday that Trump has “tremendous influence” over the GOP conference and thinks Johnson went to Mar-a-Lago to speak with the presumptive nominee. Republican president on the Ukraine aid package and getting him to agree that a loan program for direct government assistance would be “acceptable.”

“Remember, the first lethal aid package that ever went to Ukraine, which I approved, $300 million, came from the Trump administration,” McCaul said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “They don’t want to see us lose in Ukraine like we did in Afghanistan. The repercussions are long-term – a weaker America, not a stronger one. I don’t think Trump wants to take that on. I think he wants to help us get to the point where he can get the job done.”

Senator JD Vance, R-Ohio, who wrote a op-ed in The New York Times detailing his opposition to Biden’s proposal to congressional Republicans to pass the supplemental aid package, he argued that approving it in its current form would weaken Israel’s defense in its war against Hamas.

“I think we should focus — I think Israel is a much closer ally, it’s a much more central American national security interest,” he said during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And of course we need to focus on ourselves. This means encouraging Ukrainians to adopt a defensive strategy.”

“This is really important because we will hear a lot of calls in Washington, D.C., that we now have to approve the supplement,” he added. “But if we pass the supplementary measure for Ukraine and Israel and send Ukraine a ton of weapons that the Israelis need, we will actually be weakening Israel in the name of helping them.”

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with