House GOP Leaders Hope Separate Votes Are Enough To Unsnag Aid To Israel And Ukraine

Potentially breaking a months-long deadlock, House Republicans have a plan to move military assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in the wake of this weekend’s massive attempted strike on Israel by Iran.

The plan, while sounding simple, may be difficult to pull off: have separate votes on aid for each of the countries, as well as another catch-all bill with other provisions, such as forcing social media app TikTok in the U.S. to be divested from its Chinese owner and requiring Ukraine to repay some of its aid.

“There are precipitating events around the globe that we’re all watching very carefully, and we know that the world is watching us, to see how we react,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters after a meeting of House Republicans in the U.S. Capitol basement early Monday night.

“We will vote on each of these measures separately in four different pieces,” he said.

But with interparty politics between Republicans and Democrats in the House and intraparty politics within the GOP conference itself between Johnson and his detractors, the plan may not be as straightforward as it sounds.

First, it would mean the House is not going to vote on the $95.5 billion bill the Senate passed with 70 votes once negotiations over a bipartisan border bill collapsed in February. That bill, which wraps together aid for all three countries, has been the one Democrats have said for some time is the only one the House should consider.

“The only path forward is an up-or-down vote on the bipartisan, comprehensive national security bill,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters last week. The White House has also pushed for a vote on the Senate bill as the quickest way to get aid passed.

If Johnson