Johnson moving forward with Ukraine aid bill despite pressure from hardliners

By Lauren Fox, Haley Talbot, Melanie Zanona and Michelle Shen, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday he is sticking with his plan to put a series of foreign aid bills on the floor, including funding for Ukraine, after facing significant pressure from hardliners.

“After significant Member feedback and discussion, the House Rules Committee will be posting soon today the text of three bills that will fund America’s national security interests and allies in Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, including a loan structure for aid, and enhanced strategy and accountability,” Johnson said in the note.

The three-part supplemental package looks strikingly similar to the Senate’s bill in several key ways including that the package includes a little more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and other conflict zones around the world, which had been a red line for Democrats.

The bills, taken together, also add up to about $95 billion in aid – the same amount the Senate bill included – with an adjustment that $10 billion in Ukraine economic assistance is in the form of a repayable loan. This specific assistance is the kind of direct payment that helps Ukraine’s government continue to function during a war.

Those loans are through approximately $7.9 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine and another $1.6 billion in assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, requiring the president to strike an agreement with Kyiv to repay the funding. The administration could cancel the debt if they choose to, according to a source familiar.

Overall, the bill will send $61 billion to Ukraine and regional partners, $23 billion of which will go to replenishing US stockpiles. It will also include $26 billion to Israel and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific, according to a release from the House Appropriations Committee.

The fight over the bills – and the potential for right-wing members of the GOP to attempt to oust Johnson over it – adds up to the most intense pressure that the speaker has faced over his future in his short time in the role. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on Tuesday said he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate, which would boot Johnson from the speakership if it passed, leading the speaker to defiantly tell reporters that he would not be resigning.

When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” why the foreign aid packages weren’t broken up months ago, given Ukraine’s desperate need for aid, Johnson said that it takes “a long time to socialize and build consensus when you have the smallest majority in US history.”

“Look, we know what the timetable is,” he added. “We know the urgency in Ukraine and in Israel, and we are going to stand by Israel, our close ally and dear friend, and we’re going to stand for freedom and make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn’t March through Europe.”

Johnson appeared unfazed by threats to oust him, insisting he doesn’t “walk around thinking about the motion to vacate.”

“It’s a procedural matter here that I think has been abused in recent times,” he said. “Maybe at some point we change that, but right now, I got to do my job, and so do all my colleagues.”

Johnson under pressure

The loan structure around aid comes after a meeting and news conference with Johnson and former President Donald Trump, who said in February that the US should stop providing foreign aid unless it is structured as a loan. That weekend, Johnson earned full-throated support from Trump at a perilous time in his speakership.

Johnson had announced Monday evening the House will take up separate bills this week to provide aid for Israel and Ukraine, heeding demands from the far right to keep the issues separate. But the final product is expected to be lumped together as one big package that will be sent to the Senate, according to sources familiar. The House can do this though an arcane procedure, something that is enraging the right wing of the Republican party but it’s what Democrats have been insisting on as a condition of their support.

The speaker has been facing mounting pressure to make tweaks to the foreign aid package proposed earlier this week – and not just from his most right-wing members. While conservative House Freedom caucus members have been sounding the alarm on border security and the foreign aid bills since Tuesday’s caucus meeting, the shouts have now spilled into the rank and file.

Moderate New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis on Wednesday told the speaker “go back to Biden & Schumer and tell them he needs a border security measure to pass foreign aid.” Johnson said in his letter to members that he will bring forward an immigration bill that looks like the House’s HR 2.

A number of far-right House Republicans have been quick to shoot down the border bill that Johnson announced would be included with the foreign aid bills expected to be voted on Saturday, dispelling any hope that the border provisions would placate the speaker’s right flank.

In an embarrassing defeat for Johnson on Wednesday evening, the House Rules Committee failed to pass a rule on the GOP border security bill, with Republicans threatening to vote against the measure in committee.

Moderate GOP Rep. Mike Lawler called on Massie, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman to resign from the panel, accusing them of blocking the speaker’s agenda.

“The three members who refuse to support the Speaker’s agenda should resign from the Rules Committee immediately. If they refuse, they should be removed immediately. They are there on behalf of the conference, not themselves,” Lawler said in a social media post.

The border bill, which includes the core provisions of another House passed border package that remains dead in the Senate, was seen as a messaging exercise by Johnson in an attempt to placate his colleagues demands on the border, and it clearly does not appear to be working.

Greene, who is leading the effort to oust Johnson, said on X: “You are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills dependent on Democrats. Everyone sees through this.”

Conservative hardliners were quickly fuming at Johnson for his decision to move ahead with billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and loudly warning him it could cost him his job.

An angry Roy said he is “very disappointed” in the speaker, and he is “past the point of giving grace.”

“I need a little bit more time today, but it is not good,” Roy said when asked by CNN if it is time for him to get out of office.

Firebrand Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called Johnson’s decision to move ahead with the foreign aid bills as tantamount to “surrender,” vowing to vote against the package and work hard to pressure others to not support the move. Other Republicans also expressed anger and wouldn’t rule out voting against Johnson on procedural motions that could upend the bill.

In a first key test of the measures, the House Rules Committee will meet Thursday morning to advance Johnson’s plans for the foreign aid package. However, the three hardliners on the panel who blocked the border security bill Wednesday have also threatened to oppose a rule on the foreign aid bill.

Democrats could be needed

With Republicans only controlling the House by a razor-thin margin, Johnson will likely need Democrats to pass the foreign aid bills – and save his job should the motion to vacate come to the floor.

House Democrats are waiting to weigh in on precisely how much they will help with procedural votes on the aid package until they see if it includes a must-have item for them: $9 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza and other conflict zones around the globe. The billions in humanitarian aid includes not just money for Gaza but for Sudan, Haiti and other areas that Democrats have been quick to point out.

During a caucus meeting on Tuesday, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told his caucus they would not accept “one penny” less of humanitarian aid.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered his first explicit endorsement of the plan offered up by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“I strongly support this package to get critical support to Israel and Ukraine, provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine is facing continued bombardment from Russia that has intensified dramatically in the last month,” Biden said in a statement.

The state of the battlefield in Ukraine is beginning to “shift a bit … in Russia’s favor,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Wednesday as he urged for passage of the supplemental aid package for Ukraine.

“In terms of, you know, what happens going forward and how long Ukraine will be able to sustain its efforts, I think we’re already seeing things on the battlefield begin to shift a bit in in terms of in Russia’s favor,” Austin told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

However, House Democrats are divided over whether they would try and save Johnson if an effort to oust him gets underway in the chamber, with institutionalists insisting that voting against a motion to vacate could protect the body from devolving into chaos mere months before a presidential election. Progressive members, meanwhile, warn that helping Johnson now could ultimately undermine the party with its base, which already may be less than enthusiastic about showing up at the polls in November.

Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi and Jared Moskowitz have said publicly they would not support an attempt to oust Johnson, but other Democrats – including one who held the same job as Johnson – aren’t ready to make that kind of commitment.

“Let’s just hope that that does not happen, and that we can do our responsibilities, protect and defend our own democracy as we protect theirs,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

If Johnson is indeed ousted, it could plunge the House into chaos once again, with zero legislation getting on the floor until a new speaker is elected.

This story has been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.

CNN’s Manu Raju and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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