'Easy way to solve that': Mitch McConnell issues challenge to Mike Johnson

13 February 2024

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is calling on his counterpart in the House of Representatives to allow his fellow Republicans to decide the fate of a bill that just passed his chamber with significant GOP support.

McConnell managed to muscle through critical appropriations for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine after a weekend of debates and up-or-down votes on amendments. According to Politico, the Senate GOP leader is now pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to put the bill up for a vote in his chamber, saying he believes it would pass if given a chance.

"We’ve heard all kinds of rumors about whether the House supports Ukraine or doesn’t," McConnell said, "It seems to me that the easy way to solve that would be to vote. And I hope the speaker will find a way to allow the House to work its will on the issue of Ukraine aid and the other parts of the bill as well."

"I don’t have any advice on how he does it. That’s why we have conferences," he continued. "What I do think is appropriate is for the House to be able to work its will on Ukraine, which obviously was the most controversial part of what we did."

Earlier on Tuesday, senators passed a $95.3 billion foreign aid package to assist US allies on a 70-29 vote, with 22 of the "yea" votes coming from Republicans. $60 billion of that money is allotted for Ukraine's ongoing war against Russia, which has only been prolonged with consistent US support. The remaining $30 billion is going toward Taiwan's efforts to bolster its defenses against China, and for Israel's war in Gaza that began after Hamas' October 7 attack.

Despite the call from McConnell to hold a vote, Johnson has so far pledged to kill the legislation, saying he won't support any bill that doesn't include funding for border security. Of course, Republicans torpedoed a bipartisan bill last week that coupled $14 billion in new border security funding with foreign aid after former President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized it. Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), who is a staunchly conservative Trump supporter, was the lead Republican negotiator as the bill was being written and managed to cobble together numerous conservative policy priorities in the package before it died in the US Senate.

Trump has made the Southern border a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign, and told Republicans that "blame" for the bill's failure can be assigned to him, as he wants to take credit for addressing the border should he win a second term in November.

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