Endgame Begins On Ukraine Funding Fight After White House Endorses Standalone Bills

Six months after it began in earnest, the fight on Capitol Hill over whether to send more help for Ukraine defend itself against an unprovoked invasion by Russia may finally be nearing an end.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday unveiled a bill to provide $60.8 billion in military and economic assistance to the embattled country, with an eye toward a House vote on it Saturday. The measure would be one of three aid packages; the second would be a bill to help Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaz, and the third, to help bolster the defenses of Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region against China.

The bills, first announced Monday night but whose details were only disclosed Wednesday, may also start the clock ticking on how much longer Johnson keeps his job as speaker — a prospect the Louisianan congressman said he did not fear.

“My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” he told reporters Wednesday.

“To put it bluntly, I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson added. “This is not a game. It’s not a joke.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who filed a motion to oust Johnson in March but has held off on calling for a vote on it, signaled Wednesday she was not yet ready to pull the trigger.

“We don’t want the chaos that was created the last time and we need an organized process if we do it,” Greene told reporters late in the day.

In October, after eight Republicans voted with all the Democratsto remove former California representative Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, Republicans saw the House paralyzed for three weeks as they tried unsuccessfully to agree on a successor. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who supports Greene’s effort,