Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday after Iran’s overnight attack on Israel that the House would vote in the coming days on aid to Israel and suggested that aid to Ukraine could be included in the legislation.
“House Republicans and the Republican Party understand the need to stand with Israel,” Mr. Johnson told Fox News, noting that he had previously pushed two aid bills to help the U.S. ally. “We will try again this week and the details of this package are coming together. Right now, we’re looking at the options and all those additional issues.”
US funding for both Israel and Ukraine has stalled in Congress. Mr. Johnson initially refused to accept a $95 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan that was approved by the Senate, and the Senate refused to accept a proposal by House Republicans that would have cut aid to Israel internal costs.
In recent weeks, Mr. Johnson has repeatedly pledged to ensure that the House moves to help Ukraine. He was looking for a way to structure a foreign aid package that could secure a critical mass of support amid stiff Republican opposition to sending aid to Kiev and growing opposition among Democrats to unlimited military aid to Israel.
But the attacks from Iran have increased the pressure on Mr Johnson to bring some package to the floor this week, potentially forcing him to make a decision he has been agonizing over for weeks.
He left unclear Sunday whether the legislation he said the House would advance this week would also include aid for Ukraine.
Mr. Johnson said he believed some proposals on Ukraine aid had broad support among House Republicans. He noted that he met with former President Donald J. Trump on Friday at his Florida estate and that Mr. Trump supported the condition of the aid as a loan.
“I think these are ideas that I think can achieve consensus, and that’s what we’ve worked out,” Mr Johnson said. “We will send our package. We will put something together and send it to the Senate and complete those obligations.”
Before the attacks on Israel over the weekend, Mr Johnson had privately invoked the $95 billion Ukraine and Israel spending package passed by the Senate in February — and moving it to the House in conjunction with a second bill that contained policies that had been endorsed by the conservative wing of his party. That plan called for two back-to-back votes — one on the Senate-passed bill and one on a sweetener package aimed at placating Republicans who would otherwise have been angered by Mr. Johnson’s decision to advance a bipartisan aid package for Ukraine.
Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the two conflicts are linked and that he hoped they would be addressed together. “What happened in Israel last night is happening in Ukraine every night,” he said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
Mr McCaul said he had previously secured a “commitment” from Mr Johnson that a broad national security bill would be brought to the floor of the House for a vote, but that the timetable was unclear.
“My preference,” he said, “is this week.”
Minho Kim contributed to the report.
