House Republicans have a wacky new plan to finally pass Ukraine aid

• For months, Israel and Ukraine aid has been stalling in the House. That may be about to change.
• Speaker Johnson is planning separate votes on the aid in order to ease GOP opposition.
• It’s a complicated process, but it could work. Here’s what to know about the plan.

For months, the House has been sitting on a bill that would provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and humanitarian funding for Gaza.

The Senate passed the $95.3 billion package in February after a plan to attach the bill to increased border security measures failed. But many, if not most, House Republicans are opposed to further Ukraine aid, and House Speaker Mike Johnson now has to deal with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to call a vote on his ouster if he allows more Ukraine aid to pass.

So Johnson has a plan: hold separate votes on the key parts of that package — one for Israel, one for Ukraine, and two more on other major components — and then bundle it up and send it to the Senate.

Votes could come as soon as Friday, but may slip into the weekend. The devil’s in the details here, and as of Wednesday morning, the text of the legislation has not been released publicly. It remains unclear whether humanitarian aid for Gaza — a key priority for most Democrats — will be included.

But while they’re generally skeptical of the plan, and would prefer that the House simply pass the Senate’s bill, Democrats in both chambers sound willing to hear out Johnson.

“I’m willing to keep an open mind, but man, why not just do the easy thing?” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters on Tuesday, saying Johnson’s plan doesn’t “sound like a recipe for success.”

Johnson also has to contend with anger from the hard right, and potentially growing support for Greene’s ouster effort.

Here’s what to know about Johnson’s unconventional Ukraine plan.

Many Republicans oppose Ukraine aid, while Democrats are increasingly skeptical of Israel aid

Johnson’s plan is aimed at addressing two separate pockets of opposition to the foreign aid package.

After October 7, the Biden administration and Senate leaders insisted on tying Israel and Ukraine aid together, with the idea being that including Israel aid would incentivize Republicans to swallow more Ukraine aid.

Republicans, hoping to avoid that, have made numerous attempts at passing Israel aid on its own, but they’ve either failed or been stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Democrats unanimously support Ukraine aid, and there are plenty of Republicans — including Johnson, a former Ukraine skeptic — who feel the same, meaning a majority of the House would vote to approve it.

But as the war in Gaza has unfolded, and the Democratic base has increasingly turned against the war as civilian casualties mount, Democrats have grown to be either outright opposed to the Israel aid or supportive of conditions.

Johnson’s plan is designed to allow progressive Democrats to vote against Israel aid, while hard-right Republicans can vote against the Ukraine aid — all while allowing the whole package to move forward.

Nancy Pelosi pulled off a version of this back in 2007

There’s some precedent for what Johnson’s trying to do here.

After retaking the House in 2007, Democrats faced pressure to continue funding the War in Iraq — but most House Democrats were opposed to that.

To solve the issue, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tied the funding to an increase to the federal minimum wage, while keeping the votes separate.

Thus, Democrats got a win — increasing the minimum wage by $2.10 — while Iraq war funding passed the House and made it to then-President George W. Bush’s desk.

The hard-right is still furious, and Johnson could face a vote to oust him

Many hard-right Republicans remain opposed to this plan, and on Tuesday, Greene won a new ally: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is co-sponsoring the Georgia congresswoman’s “motion to vacate” and is now calling on Johnson to resign.

Of course, both Greene and Massie are outliers among House Republicans — they were the only two lawmakers to vote against every single Russia-related bill following the start of the Ukraine war in 2022 — but Johnson has little room for error given Republicans’ dwindling vote margin.

Several Democrats have said they would oppose an effort to oust Johnson, a break from their unanimous support for Kevin McCarthy’s ouster in October.

But some of those Democrats have conditioned that promise on the passage of more Ukraine aid, and it’s unclear if Johnson’s plan will satisfy them.

“In the absence of an organized, logical demonstration of leadership, I’m not making any promises,” said Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, who previously indicated a willingness to save Johnson in exchange for more Ukraine aid.

This story will be updated when the text of Johnson’s bill is released.

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