House GOP to Consider Ukraine & Israel Aid Individually, Demand Greater Accountability - Speaker

After Mike Johnson was sworn in as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, taking over the gavel from ousted Kevin McCarthy, he had pledged that his first legislative action would be aimed at supporting Israel. As he delineated the House's priorities in his opening speech, the Louisiana Native noticeably avoided making any mention of Ukraine.

Any fresh military aid packages for Ukraine and Israel need to be considered separately, the newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives has insisted.

“Our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues,” US Rep. Mike Johnson said in a US media interview.

The 56th Speaker of the lower chamber of the US Congress added that he had indicated as much when he conferred with White House officials after meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Amid growing Republican skepticism over continuously funneling vast amounts of aid to the Kiev regime instead of resolving outstanding domestic issues plaguing America, Mike Johnson has also indicated there needs to be greater accountability regarding money spent on Ukraine.

“Israel is a separate matter. But here’s the thing that distinguishes House Republicans from the other team. We’re going to find pay-fors in the budget. We’re not just printing money to send it overseas. We’re going to fund the cuts elsewhere to do that,” said Johnson.

Regarding support for Israel amid the current conflagration in the Mideast, Mike Johnson underscored in the media interview that House Republicans would go further than Biden and propose an aid package worth $14.5 million for Israel.

Earlier, Joe Biden asked Congress to green light a $106 billion supplementary aid package that incorporates $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion - for Israel, as well as $10.6 billion for resolving the US border security crisis.

Indeed, against the backdrop of Ukraine “fatigue” taking hold of an increasingly growing number of GOP lawmakers, many Republicans have indicated that the White House needed to focus on implementing border policy changes and toughening migration legislation. This comes as the US government is facing a looming funding deadline in around three weeks. Earlier, a shutdown was dodged when Congress narrowly passed a last-minute stopgap deal to extend funding for another 45 days, but the turmoil over spending issues continues to grip Capitol Hill. Johnson has already acknowledged that yet another stopgap spending measure will likely need to be passed to continue government funding past the mid-November deadline into either mid-January or mid-April.

While the very first legislative action that Johnson brought to the House on Wednesday was a resolution pledging support for Israel and condemning Hamas - that passed with a 412-10 vote - new funding for the Kiev regime was never mentioned by the new Speaker among the priorities for the House in his is post-election speech on October 25.

According to one of the Republicans opposing further bankrolling of the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Mike Johnson is against a funding bill linking aid to Kiev and Tel Aviv because “more than half the conference opposes it.” "I support Israel. Haven’t we done enough for Ukraine?” Gaetz was cited as telling a US media report.

Earlier, there were reports that a group of Republican senators had presented a bill separating the US assistance to Israel from that to Ukraine. The draft would send "billions of dollars" to Israel but not Ukraine, and separating the Israeli aid would prevent the assistance from getting stuck in the House of Representatives, where the number of Republicans who are against funding Ukraine is increasing, as per the report.