House Republicans took a key step toward moving their long-delayed foreign aid bill for Ukraine and Israel late Thursday night after having to rely on Democratic votes to move it from a key committee to the floor. I took a step.
The 9-3 vote in the key Rules Committee was the first step in a complex process the House is expected to take in the coming days to approve the $95 billion aid package. It reflects the extent of the far-right’s anger at Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to force the bill over the objections of ultra-conservative Republicans, and the extent to which he plans to push the bill through. This highlighted the need to rely on the Democratic Party.
Three far-right Republicans on the committee that controls the bill before the House of Representatives refused in a fit of anger to support rules needed to consider the foreign aid bill, leaving the bill likely to die in committee. . But Democrats on the committee intervened and saved this extraordinary breach of convention.
All Democrats voted to advance the plan out of committee.
The Rules Committee is traditionally a chair’s body, and bills are usually brought to the floor by a direct party-line vote.
Democrats will almost certainly have to vote on the House floor to approve the rules and allow the proposed relief package, in yet another unusual vote in the face of Republican opposition. Dew.
The rules are crucial to Mr. Johnson’s plan to pass a foreign aid package through the House of Commons. That’s because the rule would allow separate votes on aid to Israel and aid to Ukraine supported by different coalitions, but then combine them without requiring the presence of MPs. . This is the first time anyone has ever voted in favor of an entire bill.
A group of far-right lawmakers who tried to block the bill in committee won a seat on the Rules Committee as part of a concession made by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, but they have been in conflict with ultra-conservatives who opposed Mr. McCarthy’s selection. Negotiation was necessary. and agreed to support him only after he had given them significant influence. They refused to support measures to bring forward foreign aid packages. That’s because they won’t be allowed to vote on stricter border security provisions, which they said should take precedence over aid to Ukraine.
This amounted to an astonishing act of treason, and Democrats were forced to bail out the Speaker and pass the bill through the House.
Mr Johnson had previously said he expected the support package to be passed in the House of Commons on Saturday.
“I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than boys in America,” he said in an interview on Newsmax Thursday night. “We don’t want our boots on the ground. We can prevent that by keeping Putin at bay with our boots.”
