Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is frantically trying to come up with a strategy to maintain his vulnerable position as speaker and appease the right wing of his party now that the Senate's foreign aid bill has reached the House. He is also trying to continue finding common ground with both political parties' leaders who wish to maintain support for their overseas allies.
To address the $95 billion military spending package, which cleared the Senate on Tuesday and contains international assistance to Israel and Ukraine, Johnson is asking a one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden. The meeting with Biden, meanwhile, could simply be one more indication that the speaker is confused about how to proceed in his own chamber.
Many Republicans told Politico that the GOP leadership is still unaware of what Johnson is thinking about, and that the measure will not advance in the lower house.
Regarding what he wants, one House GOP source told the newspaper, "I am as bewildered as ever." "He has not offered us any guidance. I believe he is now in survival mode.
Since taking over as speaker after the removal of former California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy from office last year, Johnson has operated mostly on instinct, well aware of the hard-line conservatives who were lurking in the background, perhaps bringing up a vote to remove him from office. Now that financing for Ukraine is on the table, right-wing Republicans who are, to put it mildly, opposed to the Senate's foreign assistance package are going to be all over him with criticism and threats.
Politico claims that many approaches to the next step are being considered. Some of them, meanwhile, are beyond of Johnson's jurisdiction. The speaker may try to split the Senate measure apart for separate votes or attempt to unite the Senate's legislation with H.R. 2, the House's border plan, if he felt more control over his caucus. Still, the House Rules Committee would need to support both actions.
Hard-line McCarthy loyalists still sit on the committee; McCarthy left Congress at the end of the previous year. As a result of their de facto veto power in the committee, Johnson would probably encounter formidable obstacles in trying to separate the Senate measure or add more teeth to the House's strict border laws.
House Democrats are urging Johnson to set a vote on the Pentagon funding measure as soon as possible, but Republican legislators are pushing back. Just a few Republicans would need to support the proposal for it to be successful, given every Democratic legislator has already signed a shell discharge petition. Should the 218 signatures become a majority, the measure would be taken to the floor for a vote.
On Tuesday, Johnson rejected the idea and said reporters that he would "definitely oppose it." Johnson said, "[I] hope it would not be considered." "The House must exert its will on this matter."
Ahead of the bill's adoption on Monday, the speaker criticized it, saying that the senators ought to have "gone back to the drawing board" to add measures for border security. Following the failure of a bipartisan deal last week in the upper chamber to combine border security and assistance to Ukraine, which Senate Democratic and Republican leaders and the White House had been working on for months, the Senate passed a foreign aid package.
To address the $95 billion military spending package, which cleared the Senate on Tuesday and contains international assistance to Israel and Ukraine, Johnson is asking a one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden. The meeting with Biden, meanwhile, could simply be one more indication that the speaker is confused about how to proceed in his own chamber.
Many Republicans told Politico that the GOP leadership is still unaware of what Johnson is thinking about, and that the measure will not advance in the lower house.
Regarding what he wants, one House GOP source told the newspaper, "I am as bewildered as ever." "He has not offered us any guidance. I believe he is now in survival mode.
Since taking over as speaker after the removal of former California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy from office last year, Johnson has operated mostly on instinct, well aware of the hard-line conservatives who were lurking in the background, perhaps bringing up a vote to remove him from office. Now that financing for Ukraine is on the table, right-wing Republicans who are, to put it mildly, opposed to the Senate's foreign assistance package are going to be all over him with criticism and threats.
Politico claims that many approaches to the next step are being considered. Some of them, meanwhile, are beyond of Johnson's jurisdiction. The speaker may try to split the Senate measure apart for separate votes or attempt to unite the Senate's legislation with H.R. 2, the House's border plan, if he felt more control over his caucus. Still, the House Rules Committee would need to support both actions.
Hard-line McCarthy loyalists still sit on the committee; McCarthy left Congress at the end of the previous year. As a result of their de facto veto power in the committee, Johnson would probably encounter formidable obstacles in trying to separate the Senate measure or add more teeth to the House's strict border laws.
House Democrats are urging Johnson to set a vote on the Pentagon funding measure as soon as possible, but Republican legislators are pushing back. Just a few Republicans would need to support the proposal for it to be successful, given every Democratic legislator has already signed a shell discharge petition. Should the 218 signatures become a majority, the measure would be taken to the floor for a vote.
On Tuesday, Johnson rejected the idea and said reporters that he would "definitely oppose it." Johnson said, "[I] hope it would not be considered." "The House must exert its will on this matter."
Ahead of the bill's adoption on Monday, the speaker criticized it, saying that the senators ought to have "gone back to the drawing board" to add measures for border security. Following the failure of a bipartisan deal last week in the upper chamber to combine border security and assistance to Ukraine, which Senate Democratic and Republican leaders and the White House had been working on for months, the Senate passed a foreign aid package.
