![](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2024-03\/240322-Mike-Johnson-ch-1045-7fa894.jpg\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]\n<\/p>\n
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday did not indicate that he would put the Senate-passed supplemental package on foreign aid on the floor this week, despite mounting pressure from Democrats and some GOP lawmakers to do so after Iran\u2019s retaliatory strike against Israel.<\/p>\n
During an interview on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures,\u201d Johnson noted that House members were pulling together details for a new package.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House initially passed its GOP-led Israel support package days after Johnson was elected speaker in October. The package, which paired $14.3 billion in aid to Israel with cuts to IRS funding, was deemed dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden vowed to veto it.<\/p>\n
Then, in\u00a0February, the House failed to pass a stand-alone Israel aid bill without those IRS cuts, with many Republicans voting with Democrats to defeat the effort.<\/p>\n
That same month, the Senate passed a $95 billion national security package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but Johnson rejected the deal after killing a bipartisan effort in the Senate to address security at the U.S.-Mexico border. And, under pressure from GOP hard-liners who have warned him that tying Ukraine aid to the bill could prove detrimental to his speakership, Johnson has yet to address aid to the war-town country months later.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the \u201cbest\u201d way to help Israel was to \u201cpass the supplemental this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve called on Speaker Johnson to do that,\u201d he added during a New York City press conference after a phone call between Biden and the four congressional leaders, including Johnson. \u201cThere was a consensus on the phone among all the leaders that we had to help Israel and help Ukraine, and now hopefully we can work that out and get this done next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call included Biden, Johnson, Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to an aide for Schumer. Biden stressed the urgency of passing a foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine and pressed Johnson to bring it up for a vote as early as this week, but it’s unclear whether the speaker will do so, an administration source familiar with the discussion said.<\/p>\n
Asked on Sunday whether he is considering former President Donald Trump\u2019s idea of turning Ukraine aid into a loan, Johnson touted his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, saying that they are \u201c100% united on these big agenda items.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk about aid to Ukraine, he\u2019s introduced the loan lease concept, which is a really important one, I think, has a lot of consensus,\u201d he said, adding that seizing the assets of a \u201ccorrupt Russian oligarchy\u201d to help fund Ukrainian resistance is also among the ideas he thinks can reach consensus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working through,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll send our package, we\u2019ll put something together and send it to the Senate and get these obligations complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
McConnell, R-Ky., on Saturday urged Congress to pass the supplemental military aid package that has been held up for months. McConnell said the U.S. must stand with Israel after Iran launched retaliatory attacks against the country in response to the Israeli bombing of its consular building in Syria that killed two of Tehran\u2019s top military leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot hope to deter conflict without demonstrating resolve and investing seriously in American strength. The Commander-in-Chief and the Congress must discharge our fundamental duties without delay,\u201d he said of the package that ties aid to Ukraine and Israel. \u201cThe consequences of failure are clear, devastating, and avoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, on Sunday said he expects the House to pass the long-stalled supplemental military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan this week with \u201coverwhelming support.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine is beginning to lose the ability to defend itself and the United States must step up and provide Ukraine the weapons that they need,\u201d he said during an interview with NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re going to see overwhelming support for that in the House this week,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise indicated later Sunday night that the lower chamber will take up \u201cseveral measures to demonstrate our support of Israel and take action against Iran\u201d next week.<\/p>\n
As of Sunday night, no votes were noticed on legislation that would provide aid to Israel. But Johnson said Sunday that Republicans will put together a foreign aid package for consideration this week. He is expected to have more details in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he hopes the U.S. could provide aid to Ukraine and fund security at the border at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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 talk, that was the agreement. That\u2019s what was going to happen and it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d he said during an appearance on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cWhat they came up with was unacceptable when it came to the border, but I remain a supporter of helping Ukraine. But I\u2019m a big supporter and even bigger supporter of helping America as an American senator. And so I hope those two things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson, who has vowed the passage of new Ukraine aid, has come under scrutiny from members of a slim Republican majority. GOP hard-liners like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have criticized Johnson, arguing that funding would be better allocated elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Greene, who filed a \u201cmotion to vacate\u201d to oust Johnson but has not acted on a vote to remove him, has argued that Congress should turn its attention and allocate funding to the southern border instead of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on Sunday contended that Trump has \u201ctremendous influence\u201d over the GOP conference and thinks that Johnson went to Mar-a-Lago to speak with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee about the Ukraine aid package and to get him to agree that a loan program for direct government assistance would be \u201cacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember the first lethal aid package that ever went to Ukraine, that I signed off on, $300 million, came from the Trump administration,\u201d McCaul said during an interview on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u201cThey don\u2019t want to see us lose in Ukraine like we did in Afghanistan. The repercussions are long term \u2014 a weaker America, not stronger. I don\u2019t think Trump wants to own that. I think he wants to help us get to the point where he gets in and he can finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who wrote an op-ed in The New York Times detailing his opposition to Biden\u2019s pitch to congressional Republicans to pass the supplemental aid package, argued that passing it in its current form would weaken Israel\u2019s defense in its war against Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should focus \u2014 I think Israel is a much closer ally, is a much more core American national security interest,\u201d he said during a Sunday interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cAnd of course we got to focus on ourselves. That means encouraging the Ukrainians to take a defensive strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really important, because you\u2019re gonna hear a lot of calls across Washington, D.C., that we now have to pass the supplemental,\u201d he added. \u201cBut if we pass the Ukraine and Israel supplemental and send a ton of weapons to Ukraine that the Israelis need, we\u2019re actually weakening Israel in the name of helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday did not indicate that he would put the Senate-passed supplemental package on foreign aid on the floor this week, despite mounting pressure from Democrats and some GOP lawmakers to do so after Iran\u2019s retaliatory strike against Israel. During an interview on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures,\u201d Johnson …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}