Speaker Johnson Says House Will Not Be ‘Forced’ by the Senate on Ukraine Bill

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) remarked on Feb. 14 that the House will not be “forced” by the Senate on its foreign assistance package that includes funding for Ukraine.

“They’re important issues on the table. We are not forced into action by the Senate, who in the latest product they sent us over does not have one word in the bill about America’s border, not one word about security,” he told reporters following the weekly House GOP conference meeting.

Mr. Johnson’s comments come two days after the Senate passed a $95.3 billion foreign aid package in a 70–29 vote that includes more than $61 billion in assistance to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel in its war against Hamas, and $4.83 billion for Indo-Pacific partners, including Taiwan, to counter communist China’s aggression.

Indeed, it has attracted opposition from some conservative Republicans who say the U.S.–Mexico border should be secured before funds are given to overseas partners.

“The reason that the other one was dead on arrival is because it did not meet the moment,” said Mr. Johnson. “It would not have solved the problem. You can’t leave giant loopholes and codify some of the things that have gotten us into this situation.”

Therefore, continued Mr. Johnson, “what we’re doing right now is the House is working its will.”

Other Legislative Efforts

The Senate passed this package after it failed to proceed to vote on a $118 billion bill that would have provided that foreign aid in addition to enacting border security and immigration reforms.

In terms of the latter, it would have mandated a border shutdown after daily illegal crossings hit 5,000 over a given week, though it would have included an emergency authority for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to shut down the border if an average of 4,000 daily encounters is reached over one week.

The deal would have also limited President Joe Biden’s parole authority, a power that gives him the ability to allow more illegal immigrants into the country and raised the legal bar for the initial screening of asylum claims.

It would also have expedited the asylum processing time from many years to six months.

The package didn’t include a restoration of former President Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which many Republicans have told The Epoch Times is a must-have.

“We will address the issues, we’ll do our duty on that matter,” said Mr. Johnson

“And and all that begins in earnest right now,” he continued. “We have to address this seriously. We actually solved the problems and not just take political posturing as has happened in some of these other corners.”

Despite calling for pairing border security measures with assistance to Ukraine, Mr. Johnson has been supportive of passing assistance to the Eastern European country amid its war with Russia. He said earlier this month that such legislation has “not been abandoned.”

“Of course, we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe,” said Mr. Johnson.

“We understand the necessity of assisting there,” he continued. “What we’ve said is that if there is to be additional assistance to Ukraine—which most members of Congress believe is important—we have to also work on changing our own border policy.”

Shortly after the Senate passed its foreign aid package, Mr. Johnson released a statement, some of which he echoed in his Feb. 14 remarks.

“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” he said.

“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” he continued. “It is what the American people demand and deserve.”

Mr. Johnson called for the Senate to take up a hard-line border bill that the House passed last year, but has been rejected by the Senate, which has not even taken it up.

In January, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol encountered 176,205 illegal immigrants. During the federal fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, there have been almost 962,000 encounters.