Democrats rescue House Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid package amid GOP revolt

House Democrats late Thursday helped advance a $95 billion foreign aid package in a rare move that salvaged federal money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and bailed out embattled Speaker Mike Johnson.

A 9 to 3 committee vote to send the four-part aid package to the House floor quashed efforts by House conservatives to derail the legislation. It signals Democrats will help the GOP keep the measure alive on the floor on Friday and pass it on Saturday.

Republican Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted against the measure in the House Rules Committee. The measure included three bills providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, plus a fourth bill that would sanction Iran and Russia and require the social media platform TikTok to divest from China.

Republicans want the Ukraine funding tied to significant U.S. border security provisions. None are included. Other GOP lawmakers want the Ukraine aid bill to be reduced in size or paid for by cuts in other government funding and not added to the nation’s $35 trillion debt.

The measure and a slew of amendments are teed up for votes Friday, where Mr. Johnson will again have to rely on Democrats to save the package in a final weekend vote.

The battle over the foreign aid bill has been complicated by a threat by Mr. Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, to try to oust Mr. Johnson with a motion to vacate the chair, which ejects a speaker with a majority vote of the chamber.

“The U.S. House is now officially in an alternate universe where the Speaker shares procedural power with Democrats,” Mr. Massie said on X. “It’s unfortunate our Speaker has chosen this route. Just to maintain control of the floor, he will need to rely on dozens of democrats tomorrow.”

Traditionally, the Rules Committee acts as an extension of the speaker, and lawmakers whom the speaker appoints to the panel vote to advance legislation to the House floor as the speaker wishes. 

But that dynamic changed when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave three spots to conservative hardliners as part of concessions to win the gavel last year. He was ousted by a motion to vacate the chair in October and has since resigned from Congress.

Fast forward to Thursday, and that same trio on the Rules Committee voted against Mr. Johnson’s $60 billion Ukraine aid bill because it did not come with baked-in border security provisions.

Democrats rarely vote in favor of rule in a GOP-led committee. But their appetite for sending aid to the war-beleaguered country superseded historical precedent, and they voted to advance the measure to the House floor. 

Mr. Johnson’s push to pass his four-bill plan this weekend is not out of the woods yet. It faces a heavy conservative rebellion. The 30-plus member House Freedom Caucus officially called on lawmakers to join them in tanking the bill in a procedural vote Friday, which is well beyond the number of Republicans Mr. Johnson can afford to lose with his historically slim two-vote majority.

That means Democrats will have to bail out the package, but in even greater numbers, which they seem likely to do. 

Democrats met early Thursday to discuss whether to support the package. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, has not publicly said that his caucus will rescue the procedural vote, but the message behind closed doors was to ensure that the aid package passes. 

“We want this to pass. We think it needs to pass and we think it needs to pass now, and I believe you will see the support of efforts that accomplish that end,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat.