Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., conducts a info convention within the U.S. Capitol after the House handed the international relieve package rule on Friday, April 19, 2024.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Pictures
On Saturday, the House handed a chain of bills to provide relieve to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, along with a package that included forcing the Chinese company ByteDance to promote TikTok.
After a morning of debate on the House ground, the four bills will seemingly be wrapped into a single package and despatched to the Senate for approval. After that, this would be despatched to President Joe Biden to be signed into regulation.
“I wish to thank Speaker Johnson, Chief Jeffries, and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers within the House who voted to position our national security first,” Biden acknowledged in an announcement following the votes. “I abet the Senate to quickly ship this package to my desk so as that I will be capable to signal it into regulation.”
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled Saturday that the Senate could perhaps presumably vote on the package on Tuesday.
“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both events and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the resolution that keeps history on the apt song,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged in a put up on X after the vote.
Israeli International Affairs Minister Israel Katz additionally thanked Johnson and House Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Saturday for helping to pass the relieve.
The bills earmark over $60 billion for Ukraine relieve, more than $26 billion for Israel and over $8 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific security. A fourth invoice comprises a measure to force China’s ByteDance to promote social media platform TikTok within nine months — though the president can provide a 90-day extension — or face a national ban.
“It is uncomfortable that the House of Representatives is using the quilt of vital international and humanitarian assistance to as soon as all every other time jam by a ban invoice,” a TikTok spokesperson acknowledged in an announcement on Saturday.
The House’s approval is a severe next step for international relieve, which has been in limbo since President Biden first proposed it in October. After the prolonged-awaited vote on Ukraine handed, a crowd of House Democrats waving Ukrainian flags broke out into a refrain of cheers.
In February, the Senate handed a $95 billion version of the relieve to fund Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Soundless, the House effectively shelved that invoice essentially due to political threats from hardline House Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. In March, Greene filed to oust Speaker Johnson from his put up nonetheless has yet to force a vote on the measure.
No topic that looming political backlash, Speaker Johnson turned into as soon as persuaded to revisit the international relieve package after Iran’s attempted strike on Israel closing weekend. That escalatory hotfoot caused a renewed bipartisan push for the House to hotfoot to enhance Israel.
In response, Johnson set the international relieve package on the stop of the House’s agenda. He devised a thought to structure the international relieve in separate bills, which he offered to his Republican colleagues on Monday night time.
After that meeting, Greene expressed her discontent with Johnson’s proposed international relieve bills nonetheless reiterated that she had not yet made up our minds whether or not she would force a vote to oust him.
“I judge it be one other injurious route for Speaker Johnson in our convention,” she acknowledged Monday.
Greene’s motion to vacate loomed over Saturday’s vote. Walking into the House chamber, Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-La., informed NBC News he turned into as soon as not waiting for Greene to force a vote on the motion on Saturday.
