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Inside Johnson’s foreign aid plan

Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders finally have a plan to send aid to embattled U.S. allies.

Now they have to pass it.

Johnson told leadership colleagues and the broader Republican Conference on Monday night that he plans to try to pass three separate bills this week to unlock aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

A fourth bill would include a mix of other policies favored by the GOP. These are the REPO Act, which would allow the U.S. to sell seized Russian sovereign assets; the House-passed TikTok ban bill; a Lend-Lease Act for military aid; and convertible loans for economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

Johnson hopes to bring these bills to the floor under a single rule. Johnson will probably need Democratic support to get the rule out of the Rules Committee and on the floor – and Democrats seem likely to give Johnson the help he needs.

The speaker also told the closed-door meeting of House Republicans that he anticipates allowing lawmakers to offer amendments to this package. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in the closed-party meeting that he’d like to add H.R. 2 – House Republicans’ hardline border security measure from last summer – to the package. This is a poison pill that Democrats and the White House will reject.

Furthermore, House GOP leadership sources say they’re discussing putting in place a procedure that would merge the components that pass the House into one piece of legislation to send to the Senate. This would make it easier for the Senate to process the package.

Johnson told reporters that if the House GOP leadership is able to release text Tuesday, he expects the House will consider the package by Friday evening.

The Louisiana Republican spoke Monday with President Joe Biden and briefed him on his plans, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Johnson’s move could trigger a threat to his speakership. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has filed a motion to vacate and other hardline Republicans are agitating against Johnson.

“I don’t spend my time worrying about motions to vacate,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “We’re having to govern here and we’re going to do our job. I’m not sure how that shakes out.”

And the plan got some early signs of support from both corners of the conference:

→	Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the chair of the Republican Study Committee, said Johnson is “doing the right thing.”

→	Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said he would be inclined to support the rule allowing for consideration of the package because it split the package into four bills.

This is a big moment for Johnson, who put off consideration of aid to Ukraine for months. The Louisiana Republican has instead brought up two Israel-only aid packages.

In November, the House passed $14 billion in funding for Israel, offset by cuts to the IRS. Senate Democratic leadership ignored that bill. In February, Johnson put a clean Israel funding bill on the floor. It failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage.

House Democrats: As we mentioned above, Democrats are inclined to back Johnson here, according to multiple senior aides and lawmakers we spoke to this evening.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team discussed the idea at a private meeting earlier this evening. In an interview, Jeffries would not commit to backing the rule but he didn’t rule it out either.

“We’re not going to come to any conclusion about process until we understand the substance,” Jeffries said. “If we are substantively aligned, then we can have the procedural conversation.”

Put another way: Democrats need guarantees that Johnson will do what he says he’s going to do before they give him the votes to move ahead.

In the Senate: Our conversations with senators on both sides of the aisle this evening indicate that the Senate would likely take up and pass the House’s measure as long as it includes aid for both Israel and Ukraine.

“If that’s what’s necessary to get it out of that sausage factory, I’m OK with that,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who supports Ukraine aid.

But Senate leaders from both parties continue to hammer the same message — that the most efficient way to deliver the foreign aid is for the House to pass the Senate’s supplemental that’s been sitting idle for two months. Senate Minority Whip John Thune was among those calling for passage of the Senate bill, even after hearing details of Johnson’s plan.

One point of contention in the Senate could be the TikTok forced-divestiture bill. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) opposes the House’s TikTok bill and is seen as the chief obstacle to its passage in the Senate.

“I think he should count votes,” Cantwell told us when we asked about Johnson’s plan. “We need the supplemental, so I would definitely count votes.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to comment on Johnson’s plan, saying only: “Gotta take a look at it.” Schumer didn’t say whether he has spoken with Johnson about it yet.

— Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan, Heather Caygle, Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen