Speaker Mike Johnson Says House Will Not Vote on Foreign Aid Bill Because it Doesn’t Have a Border Policy —Which He Opposed Last Week
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Speaker Mike Johnson made clear he will not bring the Senate’s security supplemental, $95 billion foreign aid package up for a vote in the House in a statement posted on social media.
Johnson’s reasoning for denying a vote on foreign aid? The bill has no border security measures; therefore, it is not worthy of a vote.
Astute political scientists will recall that just last week, Speaker Johnson and many other Republican members of Congress insisted that the crisis at the border — described by many as an emergency — did not, in fact, need any legislation, just a stricter position from President Joe Biden.
This position echoed that of former President Donald Trump, who — some might say cynically — opted to put his partisan and political ventures ahead of national security in opposition to a bill that would have provided billions of dollars to close the U.S. southern border.
But instead of proceeding with a bipartisan bill co-authored by Republican Senator James Lankford, the House Speaker condemned the effort and now is saying the appropriations bill to support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is effectively dead on arrival at the House “due to its insufficient border provisions.”
Speaker Johnson’s statement in full:
House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border. The House acted ten months ago to help enact transformative policy change by passing the Secure Our Border Act, and since then, including today, the Senate has failed to meet the moment.
The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel-Immigration legislation due to its insufficient border provisions, and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe. Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.
The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world. It is what the American people demand and deserve. Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.
So why is Johnson taking such a strident position on this bill? Punchbowl News reports that the Speaker believes he will be ousted from pro-Trump members of his own caucus if he brings it to the House floor.
