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 to the floor the supplemental package approved by the Senate on foreign aid this week, despite growing pressure from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers to do so after Iran’s retaliatory attack 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.”

The House initially approved his GOP-led support package for Israel 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 has vowed 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 Republican Party hardliners who warned him that tying Ukraine aid to the bill could be detrimental to his mandate, Johnson has still not addressed aid to the embattled city months later.

On Sunday, 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 President Joe 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 that we can resolve that and get it done next week.”

Asked on Sunday whether he was considering former President Donald Trump’s idea of ​​turning aid to Ukraine into a loan, Johnson praised his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, saying they are “100% united in 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.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch 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 suggested 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 has promised to approve new aid to Ukraine, is 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 introduced a “vacate motion” to remove Johnson but did not act on the vote to remove him, argued 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 for everyone in Ukraine that 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 President Joe 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 have 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.”