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House passes $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan

John M. Donnelly and David Lerman, CQ-Roll Call on

Published in News & Features

The most heated debate came over aid to Ukraine, with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., allowing votes on three amendments to cut funding in that package, including the proposal from his chief GOP critic. Greene, who is backing a motion to oust the speaker, gave voice during Saturday’s floor debate to the populist and isolationist strain in the GOP.

“(Americans) don’t support a business model built on blood and murder and war in foreign countries while this very government does nothing to secure our borders,” she said. “America last. That’s all this is. Every single day, America last.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pushed back against Greene and other critics of the long-stalled package.

“For months, the national security priorities of the American people have been obstructed by pro-Putin extremists determined to let Russia win,” Jeffries said. “A bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans has risen up to work together and ensure that we are getting the national security legislation important to the American people over the finish line.”

Reflecting the deep divisions among their constituents — 61 percent of Republicans in a CBS-YouGov poll earlier this month said they opposed more aid to Ukraine — House GOP lawmakers rejected the package by a margin of 101-112, with one voting present.

Greene’s amendment was defeated on a 71-351 vote; all 71 votes in favor were Republicans, with 139 GOP lawmakers opposed.

 

In one key difference from the Senate-passed bill, over $9 billion in economic aid to Ukraine is structured as a loan, though the president could waive the repayment requirement unless Congress votes to block such waivers. That wasn’t enough to tamp down criticism from some in the House GOP.

An amendment from Ukrainian-born Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., would have struck economic and budgetary support for Ukraine while preventing the president from drawing down billions of dollars worth of additional U.S. weapons stocks to send to Kyiv. It was defeated on a 105-319 vote, with Republicans breaking almost evenly for and against that amendment.

Another amendment, from Kat Cammack, R-Fla., to strip $10.5 billion in nonmilitary assistance to Ukraine, drew stronger GOP support with 154 votes in favor and only 59 opposed, but it still fell on a 154-272 vote.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the House’s decisions Saturday echoed those that confronted America and Europe ahead of World War II.

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