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The U.S. Capitol Dome at the Capitol in Washington, DC, April 18, 2024.
Late Thursday night, the Republican-led House Rules Committee used Democratic support to advance a series of foreign aid bills that Republican leaders said would require votes from across the aisle to pass. It is shown that.
The move is likely to further infuriate conservatives who oppose additional aid to Ukraine and have threatened House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job over the issue.
The four bills head to the House floor on Friday for their first floor test. A final vote is scheduled for Saturday, delaying the start of a week-long legislative recess.
The committee’s work capped another contentious day on Capitol Hill, as a new push to send foreign aid to Ukraine has divided House Republicans. The right wing of the Republican conference opposes the plan and has expressed anger over a separate effort to change the House rules regarding the speaker removal process, but Johnson said Thursday there would be no changes to the rules.
Three Republicans (Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas) voted against the foreign aid bill in committee Thursday night; All Democrats voted in favor.
The three bills in the foreign aid package provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, the latter aimed at deterring Chinese aggression in the region. The fourth bill includes other House Republican priorities, including sanctions against Iran, the seizure of frozen Russian state assets and measures that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.
According to a report by CNN, the three House aid bills amount to about 950 billion yen, the same amount as what was included in the Senate bill, with the adjustment that $10 billion in economic aid to Ukraine is in the form of repayable loans. amounting to billions of dollars.
The three aid bills are similar to the foreign aid bill that passed the Senate in February. House Bill 4 was not included in the Senate bill.
Mr Johnson appeared on Newsmax and suggested the timing of a vote on the package would be “early Saturday”. He did not provide further details, but his office told CNN the exact timing is still under consideration.
According to the rules, if a bill passes the House, it will be combined into a single amendment before being sent to the Senate.
Earlier Thursday, the House Freedom Caucus took a public position urging House Republicans to oppose the procedural vote, arguing that “to secure our borders, we must repeal the rules.”
“The House Freedom Caucus votes against the rules in the ‘America’s Last’ foreign war supplement package that would eliminate border security and calls on all House Republicans to do the same,” the group said in a statement. said. Posted in X.
With Republicans narrowly controlling the House of Representatives and a growing number of hard-liners angry about border security provisions, Johnson will need a sizable number of Democrats to pass the bill past procedural hurdles. You’ll have to rely on your legislators.
The fight over the bill, and the possibility that right-wing Republicans may seek to oust him over the bill, is the most intense pressure Johnson has faced over his future in his short term in office. There is. Massey said Tuesday he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to resign, which, if passed, would oust Johnson from the speakership, and the speaker told reporters he would not resign. Ta.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Haley Talbot, Katie Lobosco, Tami Luhby and Brian Fung contributed to this report.
