House Set to Vote on Foreign Aid Bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
The House on Saturday was heading toward passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line to advance the long-stalled legislation in defiance against hard-liners from his own party.
Lawmakers were expected on Saturday afternoon to vote separately on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as on another bill that includes a measure that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok and new sanctions on Iran. The fourth bill was meant to sweeten the deal for conservatives.
Mr. Johnson structured the measures, which will be melded together into one after each piece is approved, to capture different coalitions of support without allowing opposition to any one element to sink the whole deal. Each of the aid bills for the three nations is expected to pass overwhelmingly, and the Senate is expected to take it up quickly and send the legislation to President Biden’s desk, capping its tortured path to enactment.
The legislation includes $60 billion for Kyiv; $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. It would direct the president to seek repayment from the Ukrainian government of $10 billion in economic assistance, a stipulation supported by former President Donald J. Trump, who has pushed for any aid to Ukraine to be in the form of a loan. But the legislation also would allow the president to forgive those loans starting in 2026.
The scene that is expected to play out on the House floor on Saturday will reflect both the broad bipartisan support in Congress for continuing to help the Ukrainian military beat back Russian forces, and the extraordinary political risk taken by Mr. Johnson to defy the anti-interventionist wing of his party who had blocked the measure for months. In the end, the speaker, himself an ultraconservative who had previously voted against funding Ukraine’s war effort, circumvented his right flank and was relying on Democrats to push the measure through.
For months, it was uncertain whether Congress would approve another round of funding for Ukraine, even as the momentum of the war in Ukraine shifted in Russia’s favor. Republicans dug in against another aid package for Kyiv unless President Biden agreed to stringent anti-immigration measures, and then refused to take up legislation that paired the aid with stiffer border enforcement provisions.