'We don’t have time for all of this': McConnell pressures Johnson to hold vote on Ukraine aid

12 March 2024

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is losing patience with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who continues to drag his feet on a foreign aid package still awaiting action in the lower chamber of Congress.

The US Senate has already passed a $95 billion aid package for America's allies overseas, which includes $60 billion in military support for Ukraine as it struggles to fend off Vladimir Putin's regime amid an ammunition shortage. The bill advanced with broad bipartisan support, with 70 senators voting in favor and only 29 against (22 Republicans joined 48 Democrats to pass the bill), and President Joe Biden has indicated he would sign it if it reached his desk. However, Johnson still has yet to call the legislation up for a vote on the House floor. This has frustrated McConnell, according to a Tuesday tweet from CBS reporter Alan He.

"We don't have time for all of this. We've got a bill that got 70 votes in the Senate," McConnell said. "Give members of the House of Representatives an opportunity to vote on it. That's the solution."

In addition to the $60 billion for Ukraine, the bill provides $23 billion for Israel (which includes more than $9 billion for humanitarian assistance for Palestinian refugees displaced after months of war) and nearly $5 billion to help Taiwan shore up its defenses in the event of China attempting to annex the island nation. In February, Speaker Johnson attributed his refusal to hold a vote on the bill to budget negotiations in order to stave off a partial government shutdown (that potential shutdown has since been averted).

"Right now, we’re dealing with the appropriations process, we have immediate deadlines upon us and that’s where the attention is in the House in this moment," Johnson said at the time.

But with the House of Representatives scheduled to gavel out between March 23 and April 9, pressure is increasing on Johnson to quickly act on Ukraine before Russia gains additional ground in Putin's war on his western neighbor. Last month, the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces after Ukraine was forced into retreat due to running low on artillery shells. Biden has called on the House to quickly fund Ukraine, and not allow a "minority of the most extreme voices" in the chamber to kill the bill.

"[Putin] won’t limit himself just to Ukraine, and the costs for America and our allies and partners are going to rise," Biden said.

Former Clinton administration official David Rothkopf warned in a February op-ed for the Daily Beast that should Putin succeed in his conquest of Ukraine, it's unlikely he would stop there.

"Should the U.S. stop providing critical aid to Ukraine, the gains Ukraine has made against Russia would be undone and Ukraine might ultimately fall to the invaders," Rothkopf wrote. "Were that to happen, Russia would clearly conclude that the US — and by extension NATO — would no longer have the will to stop it from further aggression and more border states, from the Baltics to Moldova, would soon be at risk."

"And because the NATO treaty requires aggression against any one member to be treated like aggression against all of them, a major war would likely be the result. It is one to which the U.S. would be obligated to intervene and American troops would be put at risk," he added.

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