Ariana Meheti, Staff Writer
On April 19, there was coverage on the news stating the House was set for a weekend vote on foreign aid bills. This vote on foreign aid bills consisted of $95 billion dollars being sent to aid Ukraine, Israel, and even Taiwan.
It was very interesting and rare to see this during the voting; four Democrats joined five Republicans to vote the aid packages out of the committee. And it’s also rare to see because this committee, which is called the “Rules Committee”, always votes along party lines but the fact that Democratic votes were needed underscores the extent to which some far-right Republicans still oppose more aid to Ukraine. These developments overnight in Iran undoubtedly will add more urgency to get aid to Israel.
This is all a test for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who’s only been a House speaker for around six months now. Two Republicans are enraged with the foreign aid bills and they’ve threatened to oust him. This raises questions if Mike Johnson’s job is in jeopardy due to these threats from the House Republicans wanting to oust him. House Speaker Johnson’s future at this time remains normal but with some uncertainty.
However, the Republicans House and non-Republican House are confident that House Speaker Johnson will keep his job, even if it means he’s saved by Democratic votes. This foreign bill is said to be passed soon, but due to the fact that there are many Democratic who have a say in the vote, this is the prime reason that Speaker Mike Johnson is facing his situation.
The exact prices of these foreign bills he would like to pass are; $60.8 billion for the Ukraine Supplemental, $26.4 billion for the Israel Supplemental; and $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific Supplemental.
Marjorie Taylor Green is having a motion to oust Mike Johnson because she believes that he should be focusing on border security despite Republicans rejecting a bipartisan border bill from the Senate weeks ago.
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