House lawmakers are trying to dial up the pressure on Mike Johnson for Ukraine aid. Here’s how:-IN WASHINGTON – Lawmakers in the House are putting more pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to support sending more aid to Ukraine and other countries in need, which they see as a threat to national and global security.
House lawmakers are trying to dial up the pressure on Mike Johnson for Ukraine aid. Here’s how
Help for Ukraine and other American friends has been held up in Congress, but a few House members have come up with a number of different options. There doesn’t seem to be much agreement on which is best. He has also been very quiet about how he plans to handle foreign help, saying that his main focus is on getting the government to pay for things.
At a press meeting on Wednesday morning, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said, “It’s no secret that we’re in a times of gridlock.” “This is a matter of life and death for the United States and the rest of the world.”
Along with a small group of moderate Republicans and Democrats, Fitzpatrick has put forward an emergency spending deal that would give Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific military help. In order to deal with the problem at the southern border, the help would also be tied to changes in immigration policy.
Fitzpatrick and his moderate colleagues say that their bill is the only one that has a chance of getting the support of both parties in a Congress that is divided and moves slowly.
Fitzpatrick said that the goal is for the bill to be brought to the floor of the House and passed as usual. But the Pennsylvania lawmaker has said he will use an old House process to force a vote. It’s called a “discharge petition.”
“Pressure point,” as Fitzpatrick put it on Wednesday, is what the discharge petition is meant to do: get leaders to bring Ukraine aid to the House floor. A bill would move faster even if leaders don’t want a vote if 218 people sign a discharge petition, which is a majority of the House.
If such an attempt were to work, it would be like Johnson losing control of the House floor, even though he is the most important person in that chamber. Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, says he doesn’t want to hurt Johnson’s position as speaker and would rather the bill follow the House’s normal process.
Dueling efforts for Ukraine, foreign aid
Also, it’s not clear if the plan from both parties could get the 218 signatures needed to move the bill to the floor. It is clear that the bill doesn’t include any humanitarian aid for Gaza in its part of aid for Israel. This is something that more and more Democrats have been insisting should be in any foreign aid plan.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told reporters, “I find the lack of humanitarian aid to be quite frankly cruel and offensive.”
Fitzpatrick and his moderate peers have said that there will be a “open amendment process” where members can suggest changes to their bill, like adding help for people in need. McGovern, on the other hand, didn’t believe in the process and said that Fitzpatrick’s discharge plea wouldn’t let lawmakers change the bill.
McGovern was wrong, according to Fitzpatrick. He said that any successful changes to the bill would be “pre-baked” into the final version before it was put to a vote in the House.
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McGovern has put in his own dual discharge petition on behalf of House Democrats so that it can be used as a vehicle for a much bigger foreign aid bill. The changes to border and migrant policies that the Senate passed last month are not part of the push.
Democrats have asked Johnson many times to vote on the bipartisan Senate bill, but the speaker has refused because it doesn’t have any border or migrant provisions, even though he turned down a Senate plan earlier that did have those provisions.
McGovern said that Johnson having to set the date for the vote on foreign aid is the only way for sure that it will happen on the House floor. “Don’t bring garbage to the floor and stuff that’s not going anywhere,” the Massachusetts Democrat told Johnson.
Republican chair says he can guarantee Congress will pass Ukraine aid
Both Republicans and Democrats are looking for ways to get an agreement on spending for foreign aid. On Wednesday morning, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters that he “thinks” Johnson has promised to bring a foreign aid bill to the House floor after Congress finishes its work of funding the government.
To help Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific, McCaul said he is working on his own plan. He said these “three threats are intertwined.” He also said that he was going to include aid for people in need in his bill, which might make Democrats more likely to back it.
McCaul, who is one of the loudest supporters of Ukraine on Capitol Hill, said he was sure that Congress would soon pass more U.S. aid for the troubled country.
But it’s still not clear what any future plan will include or if it will have enough support in the House to pass.
If lawmakers who want more U.S. aid feel like they have to, Fitzpatrick said he was “very confident” he could get the 218 signatures his bill needs to go to the floor.
It’s not possible to defend that position if no one else is going to the floor to do anything, he said.