The Week: The Split on Ukraine and Israel Aid

• Between the Hur report and his flailing response to it, Joe Biden had a rough couple of days last week. Fortunately, he’s already forgotten them.

• The Senate voted 70–29 to provide $95 billion of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In theory, the bill has majority support in the House, but the bigger obstacle is getting it to the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted that any aid package include provisions to secure the border, but Democrats are not going to go any further than the border bill that just died because conservatives opposed it for sins of omission and commission. Johnson might not even be able to bring the bill to the floor, because the Rules Committee would have to approve it first. Another alternative would be a discharge petition, whereby a majority of the House gathers signatures that force a floor vote. However, that would require several Republicans to join Democrats to undermine their own leadership. Perhaps the bill could be divided into its component parts—allowing Republicans so inclined to vote for aid to Israel but not to Ukraine. But Biden has vowed to veto any bill for Israel alone, which has dissuaded congressional Democrats from letting such legislation reach his desk. In summary, it’s difficult to envision what the path to House passage of the aid bill would look like. Oh, and did we mention that the House is not in session again until February 28 and faces a March 1 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown?

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• Between the Hur report and his flailing response to it, Joe Biden had a rough couple of days last week. Fortunately, he’s already forgotten them.

• The Senate voted 70–29 to provide $95 billion of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In theory, the bill has majority support in the House, but the bigger obstacle is getting it to the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted that any aid package include provisions to secure the border, but Democrats are not going to go any further than the border bill that just died because conservatives opposed it for sins of omission and commission. Johnson might not even be able to bring the bill to the floor, because the Rules Committee would have to approve it first. Another alternative would be a discharge petition, whereby a majority of the House gathers signatures that force a floor vote. However, that would require several Republicans to join Democrats to undermine their own leadership. Perhaps the bill could be divided into its component parts—allowing Republicans so inclined to vote for aid to Israel but not to Ukraine. But Biden has vowed to veto any bill for Israel alone, which has dissuaded congressional Democrats from letting such legislation reach his desk. In summary, it’s difficult to envision what the path to House passage of the aid bill would look like. Oh, and did we mention that the House is not in session again until February 28 and faces a March 1 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown?