The Senate on Thursday began considering a national security emergency supplement bill that includes about $60 billion related to Ukraine and $35 billion for Israel, the Indo-Pacific and U.S. weapons stockpiles. The bill was delayed for four months after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and his MAGA allies insisted they would only support aid to Ukraine in conjunction with an agreement to address border issues. But then Mr. Johnson and the MAGA crowd (prompted by former President Donald Trump) voiced their opposition to that border deal even before it was announced. This certainly shows that their demands for concessions were merely a delaying tactic.
After the border provisions were repealed, 17 Senate Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting Thursday to advance the rest of the bill. At least in the Senate, there are still Republicans willing to put national security above politics when the stakes are so high. The delay has already caused a critical ammunition shortage for the fighting Ukrainian forces. “We cannot abandon these allies and partners as they face existential threats.” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana). before voting.
But that rare moment of political courage masks a cruel reality. There are no signs that House Republicans have the same backbone. Johnson won’t even commit to bringing the Senate bill to the House of Commons. He is under pressure from MAGA legislators. other than conservative groups Permanently suspending aid operations in Ukraine.
Until now, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has walked a fine line between publicly saying he was willing to pass aid to Ukraine, but actually doing everything he could to avoid doing anything. For four months, his excuse was to point out the Senate’s inaction. And last week, just before the Senate bill was announced, he showed his true intentions by introducing a bill that would provide aid to Israel but not Ukraine.
Prime Minister Johnson claimed that aiding Israel was more urgent than aiding Ukraine (which is not the case). He even worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to pressure members of Congress to vote yes. But the White House and many Democrats denounced Johnson’s ploy for what it was: a way to slow and possibly kill efforts to pass Ukraine aid.
“If this bill passes, there will be no avenue for us to help Ukraine,” Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said on the House floor Tuesday. Forty-six Democrats voted in favor of the Israel-only aid bill, but it failed to garner enough support to advance.
Multiple Congressional sources told me that House leadership is now telling other Republicans that they will not take up the Senate’s national security policy as is. Mr Johnson could split the Senate plan into three parts and pass only the parts he and the MAGA crowd like. He may draft his own aid bill for Ukraine, which could significantly reduce the amount of aid.
Some Republicans believe Mr. Johnson feels he needs to change the bill in some way to save face for the MAGA crowd and would be happy to pass it if he did. Under this theory, Johnson wants to pass aid, but he needs political cover to make it happen. But once he starts tinkering, he opens up a legislative Pandora’s box that could delay funding by weeks, if not months. It will be too late for Ukraine.
“Mr. Johnson’s team isn’t even going to try to pass the bill that the Senate has put forward. They’re afraid of MTG,” one Republican Congressional official told me. He cited U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has called the Ukrainian military a “Nazi” force. “The fact is they have no political incentive to do anything quickly.”
Faced with this, Ukraine supporters began debating how to force the Senate bill through the House. One method being discussed is something called a “petition for expulsion,” which could trigger a floor vote without the cooperation of the chair. This kind of legislative maneuvering is tricky and rare, but it may be the only way to get an aid package to the president’s desk.
National security-minded Democrats and Republicans must act quickly to pass the full amount of funding through both chambers, no matter what tricks they use. If MAGA sabotage remains unchecked, Congressional ineffectiveness will have negative consequences far beyond the Ukrainian battlefield.