Newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson cast aid for Ukraine into doubt after calling for assistance to the European country to be split from any support provided to Israel.
The Louisiana Republican resisted United States President Joe Biden's call to include money for Kyiv in a large emergency spending bill to tackle global crises, including Israel's battle against the Hamas militant group.
Aid for Ukraine
Additional aid for Ukraine is considered vital for sustaining Kyiv's continued campaign against Russia's ongoing invasion. Support for the European country has been in limbo since Sept. 30 when lawmakers averted a government shutdown with only a few hours to spare.
Congressional leaders left money for Ukraine out of a short-term bill to keep federal funding flowing as they rushed to meet an urgent spending deadline. They were also facing a revolt from House Republicans.
At the time, they believed that they could come back to the issue at a later date once the threat of a shutdown was already behind them. That was when they planned to strike a bipartisan deal to deliver additional aid to Ukraine, as per the New York Times.
However, the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker a few days after the aversion of the government shutdown immediately altered the situation. Leaders are now faced with yet another shutdown deadline on Nov. 17 and congressional Democrats, White House officials, and some Republicans are scrambling to salvage aid for Ukraine.
They are also working against Johnson's own personal stance as well as the pressure that the new House speaker faces from rank-and-file House Republicans. Most of the latter have soured on sending more aid to Kyiv and instead want to focus solely on providing assistance to Israel.
Following Johnson's appointment as House speaker, he has signaled that he would not seek to block aid to Ukraine altogether. However, he also noted that he wants to consider it separately from any assistance provided to Israel and place tight restrictions on it.
The Need To Supply Assistance
In a Thursday interview, Johnson said that he told the White House that the consensus of the GOP conference is a need to bifurcate aid to Ukraine and Israel. He said that they cannot allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine, according to The Hill.
The newly elected House speaker's comments came a few hours after a group of conservative senators introduced a bill to send aid to Israel. It was split off from the White House's $105 billion supplemental funding request that also included assistance for Ukraine.
The situation also underscores the growing resistance from Republicans to putting aid for Israel and Ukraine together. This is true despite GOP leadership pushing for a joint package in the Senate.
Last week, Biden pressed Congress for aid in a prime-time address calling for $61 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel. The Democratic president is hoping that including money for the Middle Eastern country and immigration will help convince House Republicans.
The money that is set to be given to Israel would be used to fund air and missile defense support as well as other initiatives amid its ongoing war with the Hamas militant group, said Reuters.
