Ukraine supporters lay path to try to force US House vote on aid bill
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[February 24, 2024]
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Democrats have begun
laying the groundwork for a potential bid to sidestep Republican Speaker
Mike Johnson and force a vote on a $95 billion security assistance
package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, House aides said on Friday.
Representative Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules
Committee, filed legislation on Feb. 15 that could be used as a vehicle
for a discharge petition, a rarely used procedural tool that eventually
could force a vote on the bill if at least 218 House members - a
majority of the chamber's 435 voting members - sign it.
Under House rules, Ukraine backers could begin collecting signatures for
the petition around March 1.
Democrat Tom Suozzi's victory in a special election to fill a vacancy in
a district in New York state, narrowed Republicans' already-thin margin
in the House to 219-213. Suozzi will be sworn in on Feb. 28.
Months after Democratic President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve
more foreign security assistance, the Senate last week approved the
package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and to replenish U.S. weapons
stocks by an overwhelming 70-30 vote. Twenty-two Republicans joined most
Democrats in voting "aye."
But Johnson, a close ally of Republican former President Donald Trump
who voted against assisting Ukraine before he became speaker, sent the
House home for a two-week recess without bringing the measure up for a
vote, leaving the aid in limbo as the war in Ukraine approached its
second anniversary.
Trump, the front-runner for his party's 2024 presidential nominee, has
opposed aid to Kyiv.
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House Rules Committee Chairman U.S. Representative Jim McGovern
(D-MA) asks questions during a meeting about the January 6th Select
Committee recommendation that the House hold Mark Meadows in
criminal contempt of Congress at the U.S. Capitol building in
Washington, U.S., December 14, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Feb/24/images/ads/current/napa_lda_FILTERSALE_012924.png)
Johnson told a party meeting on Feb. 14 that House Republicans would
not rubber-stamp the Senate bill. Party leaders are considering
writing new bills, amending the Senate legislation or dividing it
into separate parts.
House Democrats are also considering another, even rarer, process,
known as defeating the previous question, in which Ukraine backers
could take control of the House floor before certain votes.
The exact number needed is not certain, because it would require
only a simple majority of members present and voting.
So far, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has said only that
he is leaving every legislative option on the table.
Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House select committee
on China, urged fellow Republicans to see that the funding was part
of an opportunity to rebuild America's "arsenal of deterrence."
"I get that this is not cheap. The cost of the supplemental is high.
But the cost of war, particularly a war with China in the
Indo-Pacific, would be much higher still," Gallagher told reporters
after returning from a trip to Taiwan.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Michael MartinaEditing by Ros
Russell and Leslie Adler)
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