Democrats stepped in to support bringing the aid package to the floor, in a remarkable breach of custom on a key vote that paved the way for its passage.
The House took a critical step on Friday toward approving a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, as Democrats supplied the crucial votes to push the legislation past Republican opposition so that it could be considered on the floor.
The 316-94 vote cleared the way for the House to bring up the aid package, teeing up separate votes on Saturday on each of its parts. But passage of those measures, each of which enjoys bipartisan support from different coalitions, was not in doubt, making Friday’s action the key indicator that the legislation will prevail.
The rule for considering the bill — historically a straight party-line vote — passed with more Democratic than Republican support, but it also won a majority of G.O.P. votes, making it clear that despite a pocket of deep resistance from the far right, there is broad bipartisan backing for the $95.3 billion package.
The vote was an enormous victory in the long effort to fund to Ukraine as it battles against Russian aggression, a major priority of President Biden that has met with bitter resistance from the right. It was a triumph against the forces of isolationism within the G.O.P. and a major moment of bipartisan consensus in a Congress that for the past year has been mostly defined by its dysfunction.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The House took a critical step on Friday toward approving a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, as Democrats supplied the crucial votes to push the legislation past Republican opposition so that it could be considered on the floor.
But it came only after Speaker Mike Johnson, who put his own job on the line to push through the plan over his party’s objections, was forced to turn to Democrats in a significant breach of custom in the House, further imperiling his position even as he paved the way for the legislation to be voted on and approved.
Those include multiple spending measures to keep the government funded and the annual defense bill, after a revolt from the far right over the exclusion of restrictions they had sought to abortion access, transgender care, and racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon.
Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the rules panel, said he wanted the Biden administration to provide more information about how previous foreign aid funding was used and what its long term goals were for ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“I’m concerned that the speaker’s cut a deal with the Democrats to fund foreign wars rather than secure our border,” said Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation who has threatened to vote to oust Mr. Johnson because of it.
The far-right lawmakers who tried to block the rule in committee — Mr. Massie, Mr. Roy and Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina — opposed it because it would not allow a vote on severe border security provisions they have said should be prioritized over aiding Ukraine.
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