House Speaker Mike Johnson leaned on significant help from Democrats to advance his $95 billion aid package on the House floor Friday, setting up final passage Saturday as he faces an increasingly disgruntled right flank threatening to oust him.
More than 160 House Democrats voted with the GOP to advance the four-part measure, which includes aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan along with a fourth bill containing sanctions against Russia and Iran and a provision requiring the social media company TikTok to divest from China.
The final vote to advance the bill was 316-94. Since 55 Republicans voted against it, Democratic support outnumbered GOP backing.
Lawmakers will debate and vote on nearly a dozen amendments before a final vote on the bill Saturday.
President Biden has pledged to sign the legislation. His support helped provide enough Democratic votes to keep conservatives from sinking it.
Conservatives remain angry over the measure and Mr. Johnson’s job performance overall, with two lawmakers saying they’ll leverage their votes to try to oust him using an arcane motion to vacate the chair.
GOP opponents of the measure say the Ukraine funding should have been linked to significant U.S. border security provisions, including finishing construction of the southern border wall and stronger deportation rules to help stanch the flow of millions of illegal immigrants who have poured over the border after Mr. Biden ended Trump-era border security measures.
“We want to get the border closed and secure first,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican. “To that I say, ‘Amen, and where is that Speaker Johnson?’”
House Rules Committee Chairman Michael Burgess, Texas Republican, argued on the House floor that he well understood how important securing the U.S./Mexico border was, but that aid to Israel and Ukraine couldn’t wait.
“The requirement for America to insert itself as the leader of the free world is not an option. It’s a requirement we cannot put on pause,” he said.
The House will also tackle a fifth border security bill that includes elements of the GOP’s Secure the Border Act under suspension, requiring at least two-thirds of the body to pass.
That bill was concocted by Mr. Johnson as a way to rake in conservative support for the aid package, but the move has backfired as hardliners call it “watered down.”
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said the war effort to quell Russia’s advance has suffered because the GOP has slowed the process to aid Ukraine.
“Democrats are providing those votes necessary to advance [the package] to the floor because at the end of the day, there is so much more at stake here than petty partisanship and brinkmanship,” he said.
Lawmakers will vote on each of the four bills, and their respective amendments, separately Saturday morning.
Mr. Johnson hopes to attract more Republican votes by including a loan provision into the Ukraine measure but could lose support from the GOP on the $23 billion Israel bill because it includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid, which was devised as a sweetener to attract Democratic support.
Republicans argue that the humanitarian money is meant for Gaza, while proponents say it’s geared more generally toward worldwide aid.
The fourth bill aims to advance sanctions against Russia, Iran and China and includes a modified version of the House’s TikTok bill, which extends the time for the social media app’s parent company to divest from six months to one year in a bid to make the measure more attractive to the Senate.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said he expected “overwhelming” support for the TikTok provision.