The Senate recently approved a $95 billion aid package in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he will scrap the bill because it does not include any provisions to improve border security. To remedy this situation, a bipartisan group in the House is working on a different proposal.
Johnson recently explained his reasons in a statement, in which he assured that "the Senate's foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country," referring to the southern border.
"The House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate's status quo," Johnson said. He maintained that the bipartisan group in the House "will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters."
'I think you'll see something that I think will be bipartisan'
Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), co-chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which includes more than 60 House members, announced Wednesday that he is crafting a new proposal that does include border provisions.
Speaking to a group of reporters in Washington, D.C., he noted that a bipartisan group of lawmakers could present Johnson with the new version of the bill sooner rather than later.
"Stay tuned in the next 24 hours, I think you’ll see something that I think will be bipartisan," he added, also clarifying that he wasn't sure if it would be a formal proposal from the Problem Solvers Caucus, which he co-chairs with Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).
In turn, Fitzpatrick confessed that Johnson is not very optimistic about the White House's willingness to go along with the new legislation. "We were just told that the president will not sit down with him. ... So it’s kind of hard to negotiate when the president won’t sit down with him," he concluded.
The aid package that has divided Republicans in Congress
The Senate recently approved a $95-billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which would simultaneously fund Indo-Pacific security and humanitarian assistance for civilians around the world.
The vote ended with 67 in favor and 32 against. Seventeen Republican senators joined all Democrats to support the legislation. They were Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), John Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Kennedy (R-La.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Tom Tillis (R-N.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.). In turn, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposed the legislation.
