House Democrats are pressing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to schedule a vote on the defense spending bill providing aid to Israel and Ukraine, suggesting the party would find a workaround solution to bring the legislation to the floor even without the speaker’s blessing.
Flanked by Democratic military veterans on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reiterated his call that the House act to advance the foreign aid bill, which passed through the Senate early Tuesday morning with bipartisan support after an all-night session. Johnson has already signaled he won’t bring the legislation to the floor, prompting Democrats to consider alternative options.
Jeffries equated the matter to national security, accusing House Republicans of possibly putting the country at risk due to their lack of action.
“This is America. This is a matter of America’s urgent national security, [a] matter of democracy,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “It’s a matter of American lives potentially being on the line.”
The comments come just hours after Jeffries sent a letter to House Democrats calling on his party to “work on a bipartisan basis” to advance the $95 billion foreign aid bill, which provides assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as replenishes the U.S. military with weapon systems that were sent to help foreign allies. Doing that, he said, may require using “every available legislative tool to get comprehensive national security legislation over the finish line.”
Under House rules, lawmakers can put forward a discharge petition that would advance a piece of legislation to the floor for a vote even without leadership’s blessing. The petition would require a majority of lawmakers to sign on in order to be scheduled for a vote.
There’s already a shell discharge petition that has every Democratic lawmaker’s signature on it, meaning only a few Republicans would need to sign on to the measure for it to succeed. If that 218-signature threshold is met, the bill would then be brought to the floor for a vote.
House Republicans have pushed against the proposal to use a discharge petition to bring the legislation to the floor. Johnson also poured cold water on the idea on Tuesday, telling reporters he would “certainly oppose it.”
“[I] hope it would not be considered,” he said. “The House has to work its will on this.”
Bringing the discharge petition could be easier said than done. The procedural move is rarely successful in the House. In order to make it to the floor, a handful of Republicans would need to buck their own party leadership to support the legislation. However, there could be a few Democratic defections from lawmakers who oppose unconditional aid to Israel.
Jeffries brushed off any concerns Democratic opposition could tank the bill, noting “the overwhelming majority of House Democrats” would be willing to “support the national security bill right now.”
“We’re not the problem,” he added. “The problem is on the extreme MAGA Republican side.”
It’s not entirely clear what conversations have taken place between House Democrats and Republicans on a possible discharge petition, but Jeffries said party members would be talking this week “to discuss the precise steps that we will take.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Some lawmakers have also floated the idea of alternative pieces of legislation to approve foreign aid, with Democrats telling reporters that conversations are going on between individual members on whether that’s a viable path forward. However, Democrats are pushing for action on the bipartisan Senate legislation, pointing to the months of negotiations that led to the finalized text.
“It’s too late to start fresh,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said. “If we are going to see the defeat of Vladimir Putin, by the Ukrainian army, that support cannot wait another four or five months … We have to bring this bill up. We have to do it immediately.”
