The House of Representatives was in no rush this week to consider a Ukraine aid package that would also provide an infusion of funds for monitoring radiological threats in Ukraine combat zones, the Speaker of the House said.
“We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate,” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the speaker, said Wednesday in a Capitol Hill news conference carried on C-Span.
So for now, the stripped-down version of the bill is in legislative limbo, along with the roughly $150 million it would provide for the National Nuclear Security Administration to help Ukraine guard against, and if necessary respond to, radiological threats from power plants in combat zones.
Russia again invaded Ukraine in 2022 and has occupied parts of the country ever since.
Johnson said the Senate bill, which passed the upper chamber Tuesday with bipartisan support, “does not have one word in the bill about America’s border.”
Republican Senators last week banded together to sink a version of the bill that did contain bipartisan proposals to tighten border-control at the U.S.-Mexico crossing. Those Senators signaled their opposition after former President Donald Trump (R) the front runner for the Republican nomination, came out publicly against the bill.
Johnson said Wednesday the Senate’s border bill “did not meet the moment.”
After the border policies were cut out, the Ukraine aid bill picked up a few votes in the Democrat-controlled Senate, passing the upper chamber 70-29 with 22 Republican votes and one abstention. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, all voted no on the bill, alongside 26 Republicans. That’s better than the bill did in a procedural vote last week.
About two-thirds of the funding in the $95.3-billion bill is war aid for Ukraine, which Russia invaded again in 2022.
