White House urges House speaker to pass Ukraine aid, says no ‘magic solution’ without Congress

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged House Speaker Mike Johnson Tuesday to hold a vote on the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid package, saying Ukraine’s diminishing munitions in its war with Russia are partly due to congressional inaction.

“There is no magic solution to this absent Congress appropriating funding,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters. “It’s not like we have a piggy bank where we just keep cash lying around that we can provide to Ukraine.”

Mr. Sullivan suggested that a new round of military aid for Ukraine will benefit the U.S. economy. His plea came as Russian forces have made recent gains in the two-year-old war, in which the U.S. has already supplied Ukraine with well over $100 billion.

“We need the Congress to discharge its constitutional obligation to appropriate and obligate funds that the president can then put to use to send American-made weapons, made by American workers and American states, to Ukraine to help defend the freedom and independence of that country,” he said.

The spending package passed the Senate last week, but Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has since refused to put it on the floor for a vote. Mr. Sullivan said that if it were given a chance, it would likely pass.

“President Biden is urging the Speaker of the House to quickly bring this bill to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote. We know that it will pass on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, just as it did in the Senate,” Mr. Sullivan said. “We cannot afford to wait any longer, every day Congress delays comes at a cost to the national security interests of the United States.”

Sending Ukraine more money has become a prickly topic for some factions in the House GOP, with many, including Mr. Johnson, arguing that the Biden administration needs to produce an end-game strategy for the conflict.

Mr. Sullivan said that more than half of the Ukraine aid in the foreign aid package would be spent in the U.S. — $38.8 billion of the $60.3 billion would go to American factories that make missiles, munitions and other gear, according to the Biden administration.

Mr. Johnson has so far ignored calls from the White House and Democrat-led Senate to put the legislation up for a vote because the latest iteration of the bill has no mention of border security policy.

His stance on the current $95 billion package follows his refusal to consider the Senate’s previous foreign aid bill, which was killed by the Senate GOP after months of tense negotiations. Republicans contended that the legislation did not go far enough to quell the flow of migrants illegally crossing the U.S./Mexico border.

The GOP’s souring on the bill also followed former President Donald Trump’s public disdain for the legislation. Mr. Trump is the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination and is cruising toward a November rematch with Mr. Biden.

Mr. Johnson said last week that he has been denied a one-on-one meeting with the president to discuss a path forward on border security measures and Ukraine aid. But Mr. Biden seemingly reversed course on Monday, telling reporters that he was open to a meeting with the speaker.

“Sure, I’d be happy to meet with him if he has anything to say,” Mr. Biden said.

Raj Shah, Mr. Johnson’s spokesperson, said the speaker welcomed the president’s change of heart.

“We welcome the president’s reversal and openness to meeting with Speaker Johnson about the best path forward for securing the nation,” Mr. Shah said on X. “It’s long overdue. We look forward to hearing from the [White House] when he’ll be available for a 1-on-1 meeting that the speaker has requested for weeks.”

Mr. Sullivan said that the Biden administration wants policy action on the southern border, but that it was difficult for the White House to see how Republicans are making the argument that they’re standing up for border security “when they’ve abandoned or walked away from a package that could garner a substantial number of votes.”

Despite Mr. Johnson’s refusal to budge on foreign aid, some members of his own House Republican conference have opted to move ahead with their own, pared-down spending package.

Centrist Republicans Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska worked with moderate Democrats to produce a $66 billion bill that pairs military-only aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with Mr. Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.

But the lawmakers had no guarantee from Mr. Johnson that the bill would be considered on the House floor. Adding to the slowdown in foreign aid consideration is the fact that Congress is on recess until the end of this month, and will return to a looming deadline to fund the government on March 1.