US House speaker says won't take up Senate's Ukraine-'Israel' aid bill
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US House Speaker Mike Johnson rejects the Senate's Ukraine-"Israel" aid bill as written.
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Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
US House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated Monday that the Republican-led chamber would not take up a bill likely to pass the Senate this week which would provide billions in additional aid to Ukraine and "Israel".
The US Senate moved closer to the final passage of the $95 billion package bill after officially attaching the foreign aid to a legislative vehicle.
Senators on Monday night adopted the foreign aid package as an amendment to an unrelated bill in a vote of 66-33. The Senate then invoked cloture on the bill in another vote of 66-33, setting up the legislation for a possible final vote as early as Wednesday.
The $95 billion package includes funding for the Israeli occupation and key strategic ally Taiwan, but the lion's share would help Ukraine restock depleted ammunition supplies, weapons, and other crucial needs as it enters a third year of war.
The bill however does not include changes to US immigration policy, after a previous Senate text that encompassed both the border and foreign aid was killed by members of Johnson's own party in the upper chamber.
"House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border," Johnson said in a statement.
He had previously stated that the Senate's previous bill, which included immigration policy changes widely regarded as the harshest curbs in decades but which he said still did not go far enough, would be "dead on arrival" in his chamber.
His rhetoric matched that of former president Donald Trump, who forcefully called for the bill to be rejected as he runs for office again and seeks to exploit Joe Biden's perceived weakness on immigration.
Despite months of bipartisan negotiations over the bill, Senate Republicans ultimately voted to block it from proceeding.
Another bill excluding the immigration provisions however gained enough support from Republicans to move forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate, making it almost certain it will pass a final simple-majority vote around midweek.
"The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel-Immigration legislation due to its insufficient border provisions, and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions," Johnson said.
"Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters," he added.
