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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is now going after House Speaker Mike Johnson and demanding that the U.S. House pass a foreign aid package for Ukraine.
“The US Senate has already passed a $95 billion aid package for America’s allies overseas, which includes $60 billion in military support for Ukraine as it struggles to fend off Vladimir Putin’s regime amid an ammunition shortage,” MSN reported.
“The bill advanced with broad bipartisan support, with 70 senators voting in favor and only 29 against (22 Republicans joined 48 Democrats to pass the bill), and President Joe Biden has indicated he would sign it if it reached his desk. However, Johnson still has yet to call the legislation up for a vote on the House floor. This has frustrated McConnell, according to a Tuesday tweet from CBS reporter Alan He,” the outlet added.
“We don’t have time for all of this. We’ve got a bill that got 70 votes in the Senate. Allow members of the House of Representatives to vote on it. That’s the solution,” McConnell said.
Moreover, $23 billion will go to Israel (including over $9 billion for humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees displaced by months of conflict), $60 billion will go to Ukraine, and almost $5 billion will support Taiwan in fortifying its defenses if China tries to annex the island nation.
Speaker Johnson justified his decision in February not to allow a vote on the bill, citing budget talks as a means of averting a possible partial government shutdown.
“Right now, we’re dealing with the appropriations process, we have immediate deadlines upon us and that’s where the attention is in the House at this moment,” Johnson said at the time.
But as the House of Representatives prepares to adjourn from March 23 to April 9, there is mounting pressure on Johnson to move swiftly on Ukraine before Putin’s war on his western neighbor gives Russia more territory.
Lack of artillery shells forced Ukraine to retreat, and last month, Russian forces took control of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. To prevent a “minority of the most extreme voices” in the House from killing the bill, Biden has urged the chamber to swiftly fund Ukraine.
“[Putin] won’t limit himself just to Ukraine, and the costs for America and our allies and partners are going to rise,” Biden said.
McConnell, who has led the Senate for the longest period ever and survived significant upheavals within the Republican Party for nearly 20 years, announced that he will step down from his role in November.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is knowing when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
“His decision punctuates a powerful ideological transition underway in the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and strong international alliances to the fiery, often isolationist populism of former President Donald Trump,” the AP reported.
As his Senate term expires in January 2027, McConnell stated that he intends to continue serving in the Senate, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”
McConnell’s announcement about the leadership position, according to Aides, had nothing to do with his health. The senator from Kentucky suffered two episodes of facial freeze during public speeches last year, in addition to a concussion from a fall.
“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”
Colleagues have expressed confidence in McConnell’s recovery in recent months, despite health concerns.
McConnell had some additional physical limitations but was not cognitively impaired.
