04/25/24

4/25/2024

Congress may finally be getting it together.

Overruling a few outspoken ultraconservative Republican members, the U.S. House by wide margins last Saturday belatedly approved crucial aid for nations and peoples that desperately need it.

The favorable vote margins tallied 11 to 1 on one of the measures, 6 to 1 on another, and nearly 3 to 1 on the big bill to aid Ukraine to the tune of $60 billion. Here are the numbers:

—$8 billion for America’s Indo-Pacific allies, by a vote of 385 to 34. All 34 House members in opposition were far-right Republicans. The aid will beef up military supplies for Far East nations threatened by China’s military build-up.

—$26 billion for an Israel package, which includes $9 billion for humanitarian aid in the region, including some for Gaza Palestinians. The bipartisan vote was 366 to 58. Those in favor included 193 Republicans and 173 Democrats, while the opposition comprised 21 Republicans and 37 Democrats. 

Most of the Democrats who voted “no” did so because the bill stripped U.S. funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The denial of UNRWA funds resulted from a report that a dozen UNRWA staff members, out of a total of some 30,000, had participated in the horrific Hamas attack on Israelis last October. UNRWA is the primary provider of food and medicine aid transport into Gaza for the desperate Palestinians there.

—And $60 billion—nearly two-thirds of the total—for Ukraine, to strengthen its military in the battle against Russia’s invasion, now more than two years old. The vote on the Ukraine portion of the package was 311 to 112, with all the “no” votes coming from Republicans. The GOP House members split on the Ukraine aid, 101 in favor to 112 opposed.

Significantly, all four of Iowa’s Representatives—Republicans all—supported all the bills.

The U.S. Senate was scheduled to take its first votes on the package this past Tuesday. The Senate had earlier approved a bipartisan foreign aid package similar to the one that the House approved, but that Senate bill did not gain support in the House. So the House bill approved last Saturday was transmitted to the Senate after passage. When the Senate passes it (the expected outcome), it will go to President Biden for his signature.

Congress dithered on aid to Ukraine for about six months, while Russia took advantage of Ukraine’s supply shortages. The Pentagon has amassed a huge supply of military materiel ready to go to Ukraine, some of which officials say will take less than a week to reach the battlefields in the eastern and southern portions of that nation once the President’s signature is affixed to the bill, and it becomes law.

Republican leadership in the House always prefers to enact legislation using just its own partisan majority. But the GOP margin there has dwindled to fewer votes than the fingers on one hand, and when two Republican Representatives declared their opposition to the Ukraine bill, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson had a choice to make: let the bill die, or rely on Democratic support to get it across the finish line.

To his considerable credit, and for the good of America’s image abroad, as well as Ukraine’s future, he chose the latter course. Once Johnson made his decision, the outcome of the bills was never in doubt.

Johnson has been brave in stating his desire for the U.S. to help preserve freedom around the world. His decision to employ Democratic House members in that effort took considerable courage, since some of the most extreme right-wing Republicans in his caucus had already declared their intention to call for his ouster as Speaker. 

That appears unlikely to happen now, since a number of Democrats have indicated their intention to support him if such a vote actually takes place, in return for his action on the military aid packages. That would leave Johnson’s opponents like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) out in the cold, their threat nothing more than bluster.

Of course, these developments don’t mean that bitter partisanship no longer exists in the House. If Democrats see an opportunity in the future to make life difficult for their GOP counterparts, including Speaker Johnson, they’re likely to seize that chance. The policy divisions and near-even partisan split in House will no doubt prevail. Issues like abortion and immigration will continue to divide the American people and their elected Representatives.

But Johnson’s decision on Saturday to aid our allies shores up America’s position vis-a-vis our allies around the world, including those who have expressed concern about our resolve. What happens next with Republican extremists in the House, and their once-vaunted power, will be one of the year’s more interesting political threads.