With U.S. aid for Ukraine teetering in Congress, it’s up to House Speaker Mike Johnson to decide what happens next
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with congressional leaders in Washington late last year he told them privately what is now public: With U.S. weapons they could win the war against Russia, without them Russian President Vladimir Putin would be victorious.
In a subsequent meeting with new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a looming deadline for the supplies came into focus.
Now, with U.S. aid for Ukraine teetering in Congress, it’s up to Johnson to decide what happens next.
The Republican’s leadership will determine whether the House will agree to approve more aid for Ukraine or allow the U.S. commitment to wither, the end of the line for the embattled young democracy in Kyiv.
“We have to help now,” President Joe Biden implored Congress on Friday from the White House.
The political and policy decisions ahead in Congress are gravely uncertain. Johnson is insisting he won’t be “rushed” into approving the $95.3 billion foreign aid package from the Senate, despite overwhelming support from most Democrats and almost half the Republicans. But he has yet to chart a path forward in his chamber.
While many in Congress view Putin as a global threat, particularly after Russia intervened in the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, Johnson’s colleagues on the far right are increasingly ambivalent about Putin’s aggression and authoritarian leadership, as seen in conservative Tucker Carlson’s admiring videos from Moscow after his recent interview with the Russian leader.
Even the sudden death of Alexei Navalny, the most famous political prisoner in Russia and Putin’s biggest rival, did not appear to move the House speaker Friday to commit to support for Ukraine.
„As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States, and our partners, must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states,” Johnson said in a statement.
Just months on the job, the new speaker is prone to dithering on big questions of the day as he tries to unite his deeply fractured but paper-thin House GOP majority, which is filled with up-and-coming figures challenging his leadership and, at times, threatening his ouster.
