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The House of Representatives overwhelmingly cleared a procedural hurdle to consider the foreign aid package that sends billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
“THE HOUSE has resoundingly cleared the rule to consider the foreign aid bill,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman said.
The House voted 316-94 to advance the legislation.
55 Republicans voted no.
BREAKING — THE HOUSE has resoundingly cleared the rule to consider the foreign aid bill.
316-94
Y:
165 D
151 RN:
39 D
55 R— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 19, 2024
Per ABC News:
The House on Friday cleared a key procedural hurdle in passing foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, despite dozens of Republican defections, with Democrats helping Speaker Mike Johnson avoid a defeat.
The chamber voted 316-94 to advance the bills, setting up a Saturday vote on final passage of $95 billion in foreign assistance that has been held up in a political fight in Washington for several months.
Such procedural votes are typically passed by the House majority alone, but Democrats stepped in to help push the legislation forward after Republican hard-liners collectively opposed the measure. More Democrats voted to advance the bills than Republicans.
BREAKING: The House advanced a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, teeing up final votes this weekend. https://t.co/jPsDeTnVAt
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 19, 2024
“The individual bills provide roughly $26 billion for Israel, $61 billion for Ukraine and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The measures are similar to legislation passed by a bipartisan group in the Senate back in February, which tied all aid together into one measure,” ABC News noted.
Here are the 55 Republicans who voted ‘No’ on advancing the foreign aid legislation:
These are the 55 Republicans who voted “No” on advancing funding bills for Ukraine and Israel.
Gaetz, Greene, Massie, Donalds, Roy, Biggs, and Crane were among the “No” votes. pic.twitter.com/IGjAF4D3af
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 19, 2024
CBS News reports:
After the procedural vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he was “happy the rule passed,” and said if it hadn’t, the House would have been forced by a discharge petition to pass the Senate version of the bill, which he referred to as a “blank check for foreign aid.”
“Even though it’s not the perfect legislation, it’s not the legislation that we worked, (that) we would write if Republicans were in charge of the House, the Senate and the White House, this is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances, to take care of these really important obligations.”
The House will vote on bill passage Saturday afternoon, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked senators to be prepared to stay the weekend to vote on the measure.
After about nine hours of recess, the House Rules Committee reconvened late Thursday night and moved GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid bills on a 9-3 vote, thanks to the votes of all four Democrats who sit on the committee: Ranking Member Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse and New Mexico Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández.
The conservative Republican hardliners on the committee — Reps. Tom Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Chip Roy of Texas — all voted against the rule, because border security was not being paired with foreign aid. However, the speaker is putting what he said is an “aggressive” border bill to a vote Friday morning. It failed to pass out of the Rules Committee, but the House will consider it under a suspension of the rule, which means it will require two-thirds support to pass.
