How Congress Could Get Around Republican Opposition to Ukraine Financing

Just after dawn on Tuesday, the Senate approved a $95 billion national security package that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel, setting off a showdown with the House of Representatives, with Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting he would not put it up for a vote.

The bill passed the Senate on a 70-29 vote, with 22 Senate Republicans breaking with their party and joining Democrats in pushing it through. But in the Republican-led House of Representatives, right-wing opposition fueled by former President Donald J. Trump poses a bigger challenge.

Many far-right Republicans have consistently voted against aid to Ukraine and threatened to impeach Mr. Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, if he introduced legislation to do so.

In a statement on Monday evening, in the hours before the bill passed the Senate, Mr Johnson said said the House of Representatives would “continue to exercise its own will” on national security and border policy, which Republicans had insisted was part of the foreign aid package before passing a bipartisan deal to address those issues to take, to destroy.

That could mean the bill's only path through the House of Representatives is for a bipartisan group of lawmakers to use an obscure maneuver known as a discharge petition to force action on it.

Here's how it would work.

A majority of the House demands action.

a request for dismissal is a demand signed by 218 members of the House of Representatives – a majority of the body – to force consideration of a piece of legislation on the floor.

The leaders of the majority party in the House of Representatives normally control the floor and all legislative matters that are voted on. But a discharge request can bypass the normal channels and force action on a bill that has the support of enough members. Because neither side wants this to happen regularly, it is by definition a difficult and time-consuming process that has rarely seen success in recent decades.

When freshman lawmakers in the majority arrive on Capitol Hill for orientation, they are typically told by their leaders never to do two things: sign a resignation petition and vote against rules, which are procedural measures put in place by party leaders that allow bills to consider the floor.

While there are dozens of Republicans in the House of Representatives who support aid to Ukraine, it is not clear how many of them — if any — would be willing to defy party leaders and work with Democrats in an effort to push off action force.

A difficult process is taking place.

Legislation must sit in committee for 30 legislative days – days when the House is in session – before a discharge petition can be filed. That process could be accelerated if lawmakers add a related bill, which has been languishing in committee for some time, to the measure they want to act on. For example, during an impasse over raising the debt ceiling in the spring, Democrats prepared a broad bill in committee that could serve as a vehicle for a measure to lift the debt ceiling, if necessary. (That was never the case, because Representative Kevin McCarthy, then the speaker, joined with Democrats to push through the debt ceiling over his own party's objections.)

Sponsors of a discharge petition must collect 218 signatures, which will be made public in the Congressional Record. As of Tuesday, there were 219 Republicans and 212 Democrats in the House of Representatives, meaning a discharge request for the foreign aid bill would require a bipartisan coalition. Democrats broadly support the package, as do a bloc of more mainstream and national security-oriented Republicans, similar to the bloc that helped push the legislation through the Senate.

Once the petition reaches 218 signatures, a seven-day waiting period begins. (Again, only parliamentary days, when the House of Representatives is in session, count.) Afterwards, each signatory of the petition can declare that they intend to offer the measure. and the speaker must take action to invoke it within two legislative days. House leaders, meanwhile, could throw up procedural roadblocks.

The majority effectively loses control of the floor.

If the effort were successful, a discharge request would allow lawmakers to bypass Mr. Johnson and far-right Republicans, who have vowed to block action on a Ukraine aid bill — or oust the speaker for bringing one up has brought – to force action in the room. .

Far-right Republicans have repeatedly voted against sending military aid to Ukraine, while even some Republican supporters stressed that the aid should not be considered without including measures to fortify the U.S. border with Mexico against an influx of unauthorized migrants . But Senate Republicans last week rejected a version of the bill that included measures to crack down on the border, which they described as too weak and politically difficult for Mr. Trump.

This prompted Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, to lift the border measures and push through the foreign aid package on his own.

On Monday, Mr Johnson was still pushing for border restrictions to be added.

In a statement, he said House Republicans “were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called additional national security legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border.” Mr. Johnson added that “absent any change in Senate border policy, the House will have to continue to exert its own will on these important matters.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia's right-wing Republican, has threatened to file a motion to remove Mr. Johnson from the presidency if he sets aside legislation to aid Ukraine. But a request for dismissal would take the decision out of his hands.