Mike Johnson faces revolt by hard-right Republicans over Ukraine aid package

House speaker Mike Johnson returns to work on Monday facing mounting pressure to advance a Ukraine aid package as well as the threat of an intra-party revolt if he does so.

The Republican speaker has indicated the House will take up the issue of Ukraine funding this week, as the chamber reconvenes after a two-week recess. But many hard-right members of Johnson’s conference remain staunchly opposed to additional Ukraine aid, and one of them has already threatened to oust the speaker, complicating the potential timing of a floor vote.

As the House adjourned last month, Johnson vowed that the chamber would soon “take the necessary steps to address the supplemental funding request”, which includes money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Senate passed a $95bn foreign aid package in February, but Johnson indicated that the House would consider an amended proposal when members return to Washington.

“We’ve been talking to all the members, especially now over the district work period,” Johnson told Fox News last Sunday. “When we return after this work period, we’ll be moving a product, but it’s going to, I think, have some important innovations.”

Those innovations might include sending money to Kyiv as a loan or redirecting Russian assets seized under the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (Repo) for Ukrainians Act. But even those changes are unlikely to sway the most vocal Ukraine skeptics in the House Republican conference, such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Before the House adjourned last month, Greene introduced a motion to remove Johnson as speaker in protest of the passage of a large government funding package, but she stopped short of forcing a vote on the matter. Speaking to CNN on