On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed a series of bills providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as a package that includes forcing Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok.
After a morning of debate house floor, the four bills will be packaged into one package and sent to the Senate for approval. The bill will then go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
“I know this is not a perfect piece of legislation,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Saturday after the vote. “We would rather send bullets into conflicts overseas than send them to our own children, our troops. I think this is an important moment and an important opportunity to make this decision.”
Johnson’s decision to hold the vote faces political risks as hardline members of his own party threaten to oust him. In March, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a motion to remove Johnson from office, but she has yet to force a vote on the measure.
“As I’ve said many times, I’m not going to be walking around this building worried about someone filing a motion to evacuate,” Johnson said Saturday. “I have to do my job.”
Johnson was flooded with a series of public statements thanking him after the long-stalled foreign aid came through.
“I want to thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and the bipartisan coalition of House members who voted to put our national security first,” Biden said in a statement. “I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to Congress. to my desk so I can sign it into law.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Saturday that the Senate could vote on the package on Tuesday.
“I thank the U.S. House of Representatives, both parties, and Speaker Mike Johnson for their decision to keep history on the right track,” the Ukrainian president said. Vladimir Zelensky said in X’s post after voting.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also thanked Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Saturday for helping pass the aid.
The bills earmark more than $60 billion for aid to Ukraine, more than $26 billion for aid to Israel, and more than $8 billion for aid to Taiwan and Indo-Pacific security. The fourth bill includes a measure that would force China’s ByteDance to sell social media platform TikTok within nine months (although the president could provide a 90-day extension) or face a nationwide ban.
“Unfortunately, the House has once again used the guise of critical foreign and humanitarian aid to block passage of a ban bill,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
House approval is a critical next step for foreign aid, which has been in limbo since President Biden first proposed it in October. A group of House Democrats waving Ukrainian flags erupted in cheers after the long-awaited vote on Ukraine passed.
In February, the Senate passed a $95 billion aid package to provide funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Still, the House effectively stalled the bill, largely due to political threats from hardline House Republicans like Greene.
Despite the looming political backlash, Speaker Johnson was persuaded to review foreign aid plans after Iran attempted to attack Israel over the weekend. The escalation sparked a renewed bipartisan push for House action to support Israel.
In response, Johnson put foreign aid programs at the top of the House agenda. He developed a plan to include foreign aid in a separate bill and presented it to Republican colleagues Monday night.
After the meeting, Greene expressed dissatisfaction with Johnson’s proposed foreign aid bill but reiterated that she had not yet decided whether to force a vote to remove Johnson.
“I think this is another step in the wrong direction by Speaker Johnson in our conference,” she said Monday.
Greene’s motion to resign loomed large in Saturday’s vote. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, walked into the House chamber and told NBC News he did not expect Greene to force a vote on the motion on Saturday.
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