House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) pushed back on April 16 against mounting anger within his own party over proposed U.S. security aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other allies, and rejected a call to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office.
After meeting with fellow Republicans, Johnson said he was "not resigning" and called the motion to oust him "absurd" as he seeks the votes needed to pass the aid for U.S. allies.
At least two far-right Republicans have threatened to remove Johnson as speaker if he allows a vote on assistance for Ukraine.
Many other hard-right Republicans, especially those closely allied with former President Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee to run against President Joe Biden in the November election, have been skeptical about assisting Kyiv in its fight against Russia and fiercely oppose sending billions more dollars to Ukraine.
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Democrats say they will not rush to judgment on a new proposal from Johnson to consider national security assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan separately, rather than as one bill.
They previously stressed that the best and quickest strategy would be for the House to pass the $95 billion package of security assistance approved by the Senate in February.
"I am reserving judgment on what will come out of the House until we see more about the substance of the proposal and the process by which the proposal will proceed," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York) said on April 16.
Schumer said he hoped to get details of the speaker's proposal later on April 16, adding that "time is of the essence."
The leaders of several House committees endorsed Johnson's plan.
"There is nothing our adversaries would love more than if Congress were to fail to pass critical national security aid. Speaker Johnson has produced a plan that will boost U.S. national security interests in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific," said a joint statement from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (Republican-Alabama), House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Republican-Oklahoma), House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (Republican-California), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (Republican-Texas), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (Republican-Ohio).
"We don’t have time to spare when it comes to our national security. We need to pass this aid package this week," the statement said.
Johnson said on April 15 that the House would consider the aid bills separately this week, but it could take many more weeks for the bills to become law.
If the House were to pass aid to Ukraine, the bill would go back for a vote in the Senate, which is due to leave Washington next week for a two-week recess.
The texts of the separate bills have not been released, and it also was not clear which country's assistance the House would consider first.
Republicans have already tried to push through aid for Israel without any aid for Ukraine. Democrats in the House have blocked those efforts.
Johnson told Fox News that in addition to the three separate bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, there would be a fourth bill including additional sanctions on Russia and Iran as well as the REPO Act, a provision regarding the seizure of Russian assets to help Ukraine.