House Speaker Mike Johnson Dumps Cold Water on Senate's Ukraine Aid Plan as Bill Passes
House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled Monday that the House would not consider voting on a foreign aid package that the Senate eventually passed on Tuesday.
Johnson ripped the bill for ignoring the crisis at the southern border and said Americans “deserve better” than to see their tax dollars sent overseas while their communities are besieged by immigration issues.
“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 posted on X.
My statement on Senate’s failure to address the most critical aspect of national security supplemental legislation: pic.twitter.com/ENjJ0WzKsK
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 13, 2024
The speaker continued, “The House acted ten months ago to help enact transformative policy change by passing the Secure Our Border Act, and since then, including today, the Senate has failed to meet the moment.
“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 that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe.”
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate passed a $95.3 billion bill for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.
The bill, which was supported by 22 Republicans, does not address border security.
The Associated Press reported Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer worked closely with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass the package, which Johnson said in his statement is “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.”
“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” he said.
“It is what the American people demand and deserve.”
Johnson concluded: “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. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
The AP reported Schumer is banking on Johnson taking up the foreign aid package because of its bipartisan support in the Senate.
Johnson did not rule out holding a vote on the bill or amending it with changes he would like to see to secure the border.
The Senate passed the bill just a week after one sponsored by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma failed to make it to a vote.
That controversial bill did address the border crisis but would have permitted as many as 5,000 illegal crossings a day in any given week before the border would be closed.
The Hill reported Johnson declared that the bill, had it made its way into the House, would have been “dead on arrival.”
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