By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is dealing with an unusual Saturday session to pass $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, with Democrats and Republicans coming together behind the bill after a tough fight over renewed American support for pushing back against Russia’s invasion into Ukraine.
Before the vote, the House started a serious debate with an uncommon sense of purpose as Republican committee chairs and top Democrats on the panels united to urge quick passage to ensure the United States supports its allies and remains a leader on the world stage.
“The world is watching us, and history will judge what we do here and now,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The weekend scene showed a significant display of congressional action after months of dysfunction and stalemate fueled by Republicans, who hold the majority but are deeply split over foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion. Speaker Mike Johnson, risking his job, is relying on Democratic support to ensure the military and humanitarian package is approved, and help flows to the U.S. allies.
There will be a series of votes on three aid bills, for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific, as well as a fourth that contains several other foreign policy proposals, including a clampdown on the popular social media platform TikTok.
If the votes are successful, the package will go to the Senate, where passage in the coming days is nearly assured. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
“Sometimes when you are living history, as we are today, you don’t understand the significance of the actions of the votes that we make on this House floor, of the effect that it will have down the road,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a historic moment.”
Passage through the House would clear away the biggest hurdle to Biden’s funding request, first made in October as Ukraine’s military supplies began to run low. The GOP-controlled House, skeptical of U.S. support for Ukraine, struggled for months over what to do, first demanding that any assistance be tied to policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico order, only to immediately reject a bipartisan Senate offer along those very lines.
Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker’s office. Yet congressional leaders cast the votes as a turning point in history — an urgent sacrifice as U.S. allies are beleaguered by wars and threats from continental Europe to the Middle East to Asia.
“The only thing that has kept terrorists and tyrants at bay is the perception of a strong America, that we would stand strong,” Johnson said this week. “And we will. I think that Congress is going to show that. This is a very important message that we are going to send the world.”
Still, Congress has seen a flow of world leaders visit in recent months, from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, all but asking lawmakers to approve the aid. Internationally, the delay left many questioning America’s dedication to its allies.
Also at risk has been one of Biden’s main foreign policy goals — stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advancement in Europe. After having private discussions with Johnson, the president quickly supported Johnson’s plan this week, paving the way for Democrats to give their rare support to overcome the procedural obstacles needed for a final vote.
“We have a duty, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to protect democracy wherever it is in danger,” the House Democratic leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, said during the debate.
Voting on the package is likely to create unexpected alliances in the House. While aid for Ukraine will likely gain a majority in both parties, a significant number of progressive Democrats are expected to vote against the bill aiding Israel as they demand an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.
At the same time, Donald Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, has been influential in the fight, expressing his opinions from a distance through social media statements and direct phone calls with lawmakers as he pushes the GOP to a more isolationist position with his “America First” style of politics. Ukraine’s defense once had strong, bipartisan support in Congress, but as the war goes into its third year, a majority of Republicans oppose further aid.
At one point, Trump’s opposition essentially doomed the bipartisan Senate proposal on border security. This past week, Trump also posted on social media questioning why European nations were not giving more money to Ukraine, although he spared Johnson from criticism and said Ukraine’s survival was important.
Still, the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has criticized the legislation as the “America Last” foreign wars package and urged lawmakers to defy Republican leadership and reject it because the bills do not include border security measures.
Johnson’s hold on the speaker’s leadership has also become less secure in recent days as three Republicans, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, supported a “motion to vacate” that can lead to a vote on removing the speaker. Encouraged by far-right personalities, she is also being joined by an increasing number of lawmakers including Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is urging Johnson to voluntarily step aside, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
The speaker’s office has been working intensely to gather support for the bill, as well as for Johnson, R-La. It organized a series of media calls leading up to the final votes on the package, first with Jewish leaders, then with Christian groups, to demonstrate support for the speaker and the legislation he is bringing to the floor.
The package includes several Republican priorities that Democrats support, or at least are willing to accept. These include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to mandate the Chinese owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its ownership within a year or else face a prohibition in the United States.
Still, the determined effort to pass the bills through Congress reflects not only politics, but also the situation in Ukraine. Key lawmakers on national security committees, who have access to secret briefings, have become seriously worried about the situation in recent weeks. Russia has increasingly utilized satellite-guided gliding bombs — which enable planes to drop them from a safe distance — to attack Ukrainian forces dealing with a lack of troops and ammunition.
