After months of at-times acrimonious debate, the House of Representatives passed a series of four foreign aid bills Saturday at a cost of $95 billion. The legislation would provide funding to Ukraine and Israel, while levying additional sanctions on Iran and forcing TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media giant to stay in operation in the U.S.
The bills now head to the Senate, where they are expected to be taken up as a package on Tuesday, according to Politico.
Utah’s all-Republican delegation was united in its support of three of the four bills, including aid for Israel and for U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, but was split over providing additional support to Ukraine.
The bill to provide aid to Ukraine passed in a 311-112 vote Saturday, with Reps. Blake Moore and John Curtis supporting the measure, and Reps. Burgess Owens and Celeste Maloy opposing.
The bill providing aid to Israel passed the House in a 366-58 vote, with all four members of Utah’s delegation to the U.S. House in favor. They also all approved a bill to provide aid to U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, and a separate bill that levies additional sanctions against Iran, allows the seizure of Russian assets and forces the sale of TikTok.
Rep. John Curtis response to foreign aid bills passing
Curtis released a statement following the votes, explaining his support for all of the bills, including aid for Ukraine.
“The United States must take decisive action abroad to prevent the worst-case scenario, allowing our adversaries in Russia, China, and Iran to bring chaos throughout the globe to the detriment of our national security,” he said.
He continued, “I spent years of my life living in Taiwan and Israel, giving me a firsthand understanding of these region’s unique dynamics. I consider it a badge of honor that I stood up against Russia and China, resulting in the Russian ambassador calling me maniacal and a warrant out for my arrest in Hong Kong. These bills support efforts of critical importance to the future of the United States and the world, all without putting a single American life in harm’s way.”
Rep. Celeste Maloy on the legislation
Maloy, who voted against additional aid for Ukraine, but in favor of the other bills, said, “Now more than ever, we need to stand by our Israeli allies and against increasing threats from a belligerent China. Today I voted to aid our most important Middle Eastern ally and our friends in the Indo-Pacific. I have always supported arming the Ukrainians, but while America is in debt over $34 trillion, and without certainty our funds will reach the Ukrainian war effort, I voted against sending billions of additional taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.”
She also criticized Democrats in a post on X for waving Ukrainian flags on the House floor after the vote, saying, “House Democrats defied House decorum today to wave Ukrainian flags. I suspect they’d never risk censure to wave American flags. This display was an embarrassment.”
Rep. Blake Moore response to foreign aid bills passing
Moore, released a statement on social media Saturday that read, in part, “Today I voted in favor of four national security bills that will advance the U.S. national interest in a cost-effective manner, strengthen the domestic industrial base of the U.S. economy, and support our allies and partners as they defend themselves from threats posed by dangerous regimes. Utah’s First District is playing a significant role in leading our deterrence efforts, with our Hill Air Force Base fighter squadrons making consistent deployments to the European, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific theaters.”
“There are two things I want constituents to know: 1) The overwhelming majority of this money is going directly back into the U.S. economy and supporting jobs at home. ... 2) The supplemental aid we have provided Ukraine since Russia’s invasion is approximately 5% of our defense spending and less than 0.2% of our GDP during that period.”
Moore also said he was “disappointed that there wasn’t a border security measure in the final package, but this was because extreme voices in both parties refused to compromise, ensuring no movement at all to stem the brutal tide of violence and chaos at the border.”
Owens did not immediately release a statement on the vote.
Pres. Biden responds to legislation passing
After the vote, President Joe Biden praised the passage of the legislation. “At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently-needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure,” he said in a statement.
Before the vote, Utah Sen. Mike Lee urged House Republicans to oppose the foreign aid measures. Among the reasons he listed in a post on X were the lack of U.S. border security measures, questions over how aid to Ukraine would be spent, and concerns that some of the humanitarian aid included in the bills could be diverted to Hamas.
Most Americans support aid for Ukraine, but support mixed among Republicans
The votes in the House come as several polls show a plurality of Americans perceive helping Ukraine as important for U.S. national interests.
The Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research canvassed voters in February and found nearly 7 out of 10 Republicans consider stopping Russia from gaining more territory either extremely or somewhat important. Pew Research’s survey from January suggests 69% of Republicans say the Russia-Ukraine war is important.
The American Action Network’s poll from February and March indicates around three-fifths of voters in battleground districts favor sending aid to Ukraine as do more than 46% of voters in red districts.
Another interesting finding — the latest CBS News poll shows that nearly 80% of Republican voters most trust former President Donald Trump on the issue.
Trump has said several times he believes he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, and has speculated on whether Ukraine would be forced to surrender to Moscow at the end of this conflict. Last week, appearing alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump said, “We’re looking at it right now, and they’re talking about it, and we’re thinking about making it in the form of a loan instead of just a gift.”
“We keep handing out gifts of billions and billions of dollars, and we’ll take a look at it,” Trump said, according to The Hill. “But much more importantly to me is the fact that Europe has to step up, and they have to give money. They have to equalize. If they don’t equalize I’m very upset about it, because they’re affected much more than we are.”
After Iran attack on Israel, pressure grew
After Iran attacked Israel over last weekend, the urgency to fund the supplemental aid bill grew. To appease conservatives, Johnson went back to the drawing board and came up with a solution: Three standalone bills for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine. A fourth bill will include a varying list of GOP priorities like the Lend-Lease Act and the REPO Act — authorizing the seizure of frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine’s needs — sanctions against Iran, and a House-passed TikTok ban.
Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, in a YouTube explainer, noted that Johnson was opposed to Ukraine funding before he took over as speaker. Curtis pointed to two possible reasons behind this change: “he now has a mantle of doing what’s best for the country’s interest and not his own personal political philosophy,” the Utah congressman said. The second is the confidential briefings Johnson, and members like Curtis, have received.
“He’s had confidential briefings as I have had ... that has changed his opinion about why we should help out in Ukraine,” Curtis said.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in a statement to the Deseret News earlier this week, said, “American support for Israel in the face of attacks by Iran and Hamas should not be tied up with other divisive political issues.”
“We should not sabotage aid to Israel by using it as a Trojan horse for billions of dollars in other spending across the world,” he added.
Speaker Johnson “prayed for guidance”
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told CNN Johnson “got on his knees and he prayed for guidance” before making this decision. But the Republican Conference’s infighting created complications.
Johnson responded earlier this week to frustration among House Republicans that funds for the border weren’t included in the package.
“Well, listen, we want the border to be a part of every single thing we do here, but it’s just a matter of math. I just don’t have the votes. If I put Ukraine in any package, it can’t also be with border because I lose Republican votes on that rule,” Johnson said, per Punchbowl News.
Curtis, in the video, acknowledged concerns about aiding Ukraine without legislative accountability and Europe’s help. But, Curtis added, he felt strongly about protecting American interests and not letting Russia win the war. He said the Ukraine funding bill installs oversight measures for the $60 billion in aid, and noted that $48 billion of this spending remains in the U.S. to replenish the military’s resources, including $90 million to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Threats to Johnson’s speakership
These latest moves have increased threats to remove Johnson as speaker. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who filed the motion to vacate, in a post directed at the speaker, said, “You are seriously out of step with Republicans by continuing to pass bills dependent on Democrats. Everyone sees through this.”
Johnson isn’t in a position to change the rule allowing a single member to introduce a motion to vacate the chair.
“Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold,” he said on X. “While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have. We will continue to govern under the existing rules.”