US House will not take up Senate's $95bn Ukraine-Israel aid bill, says speaker

US House will not take up Senate’s $95bn Ukraine-Israel aid bill, says speaker

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that he will not bring the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid bill to the House floor for consideration if it reaches the lower chamber.

The Senate could pass the foreign aid bill as early as Wednesday.

“In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson said the Senate’s foreign aid bill fails to address the United States’ most pressing issue: border security. The House Speaker added that the Senate should have pushed to include meaningful border security measures in the $95 billion foreign aid bill, which includes approximately $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and additional funding to address US national security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region.

Last week, Senate Republicans blocked a $118 billion national security supplemental package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and border policy reforms. Republicans claim the reforms in the bill would not do enough to deter illegal immigration on the US southern border. The House Speaker also said that the bill would be “dead on arrival” if it reached the House of Representatives.

Sputnik