House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that he expects the House to vote on a bill in the next few weeks that would send additional military aid to Ukraine.
“We’ve been talking to all the members especially now over the district work period. When we return after this work period, we’ll be moving a product, but it’s going to, I think, have some important innovations,” Johnson told Fox News describing a possible Ukraine aid package.
The House and Senate are currently on the second week of a two-week recess with the House returning on April 9. A vote could take place soon after.
The new funding bill, if put up for a vote, would come after Republicans killed a $118 billion package that included aid for Taiwan, Israel, the U.S. border and Ukraine. Many argued it did not go far enough in addressing the crisis at the southern border and, in fact, exacerbated the problem.
Johnson is walking a political tightrope as some, including Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) believe that a bill funding military aid to Ukraine could cost him his position as Speaker.
When asked about the possibility, Bacon responded, “It’s possible. I’m not going to deny it. We have one or two people that are not team players. They’d rather enjoy the limelight, the social media. It’s a very narrow majority. And one or two people can make us a minority.”
Rep. Don Bacon suggested that Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership of the House may come to an end over Ukraine aid. https://t.co/6DVPkseXyA https://t.co/mINV2i5OrJ
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 31, 2024
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) already filed a motion to oust Johnson as Speaker in March for the passage of the $1.2 trillion government funding deal, but she did not go so far as to call for a vote.
The “important innovations” Johnson described stem from three possibilities that he described during the interview on Fox News. The first is the REPO Act which was introduced in the summer and would liquidate the seized assets of Russian Oligarchs with the money being sent as aid to Ukraine.
The second came from former President Donald Trump when he wrote on Truth Social, “NO MONEY IN THE FORM OF FOREIGN AID SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ANY COUNTRY UNLESS IT IS DONE AS A LOAN, NOT JUST A GIVEAWAY.”
Johnson described the third in this way: “And then, you know, we want to unleash American energy. We want to have natural gas exports that will help unfund Vladimir Putin’s war effort there.”
