The US House plans to hold separate votes on aid
for Israel and Ukraine this week. According to Republican
speaker Mike Johnson on Monday, this comes after months
of Republican divisions have delayed aid but pressure on the
GOP to act appears to have ramped up after Iran's
weekend missile and drone attack on Israel Johnson cited precipitating
events around the globe when speaking to reporters Monday,
we know that the world is watching us to see
how we react. We have terrorists and tyrants and
terrible leaders around the world like Putin and Xi and
Iran. And they're watching to see if America will
stand up for its allies and in our own interests
around the globe. And we will. Johnson said
the House will break down the aid into four bills
. Three include aid to Israel, Ukraine, us
allies in the Indo Pacific and us national security priorities
. The make up of the fourth was not immediately
clear. Johnson says the new House bills will provide
roughly the same amount of foreign aid as a Senate
. One that House Republicans stalled earlier, this which
is roughly$95 billion but differs by including some aid
in the form of a loan and Johnson expects the
vote to come by the end of the week.
GOP. House majority leader Steve Scalise voiced support for
the aid and cited Iran's recent attack. If you
just look at what we did to help Israel to
shoot down the rocket drones, those were a lot
of American assets that were used so we need to
replenish our own supply. House Speaker Johnson also faces
a threat from hard right Republicans to oust him if
he allows Ukraine aid to go ahead on Monday.
Republican hardliner group. The House Freedom Caucus released a
statement calling for aid to Israel but not to Ukraine
. They rejected any suggestion. The recent attack on
Israel would ease the path towards more funds to Kiev
top House democrat Hakeem Jeffries also wrote to his caucus
on Monday urging the need to support both Ukraine and
Israel. Meanwhile, Ukraine appealed again to its allies
on Monday for extraordinary and bold steps to boost its
air defenses after Russian attacks on its energy system in
recent weeks.