The House on Friday cleared a key procedural hurdle in passing foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, despite Republican defections.
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.
“Democrats, once again, will be the adults in the room,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during debate ahead of the vote.
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.
A fourth bill packaged into the foreign aid contains conservative priorities such as a TikTok ban bill, sanctions on Iran and legislation to seize Russian assets to help provide funding to Ukraine.
