Conservatives push House Speaker Mike Johnson to abandon aid package to save his job

A group of conservatives are urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to abandon a $95 billion foreign aid package before GOP rebels toss him out of the job.

A pack of Republicans from the GOP’s far-right flank huddled around Mr. Johnson in the chamber on Thursday, trying to convince him to save himself by dropping a Biden-endorsed aid package on deck for a Saturday vote.

They said he should instead bring up a slimmed-down bill that includes a key border security provision.

Mr. Johnson left the chamber without answering questions from the media about the GOP discontent over the aid package or the brewing threat that hardline conservative Rep.  Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia will bring up a motion to vacate the chair, which, if it passed, would end his speakership.

Mr. Johnson’s Republican allies are mulling ways to block Ms. Greene from moving to remove him. One idea is to change House rules when lawmakers vote to advance the aid package, increasing the number of lawmakers required to bring up a motion to vacate the chair.

Right now, a single lawmaker can do it, which has empowered Ms. Greene.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, and Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, met privately with Mr. Johnson and also urged him to abandon the $95 billion aid package and to pledge to keep the current rule in place allowing one lawmaker to bring up the motion to oust a speaker.

They warned him against attempting the rule change.

“I told him changing the threshold on the motion to vacate, that has been my red line this entire congress. That’s what I fought for in the rules. I told him, there is nothing that will get him to a motion to vacate faster than changing that threshold,” Ms. Boebert said.

The House remains on a path to vote Saturday on a four-part aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that essentially mirrors legislation the Democrat-led Senate passed two months ago but with a provision requiring Ukraine to pay back some of the money.

Mr. Johnson plans to put an additional bill on the floor that includes national security provisions and language requiring the social media platform TikTok to divest from China within a year.

The House will also vote on a fifth bill that will include key components of a border security measure the House passed earlier this year.

Mr. Biden has endorsed the foreign aid package and said he’ll sign it. Many House Republicans hate the proposal. They want Mr. Johnson to link border security with Ukraine funding, while others want a stand-alone bill providing aid for Israel and for the Ukraine funding to be fully paid for.

Amid the discontent, Ms. Greene has threatened to bring up a motion to oust Mr. Johnson if he puts the aid package on the floor for a vote, which he intends to do.

At least one other Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said he’d vote with her. Thanks to the GOP‘s slim majority, Mr. Johnson would likely need Democrats to vote to save his job.

The handful of Republicans who pressured Mr. Johnson to ditch his foreign aid package want him to instead bring up Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s $66 billion foreign aid and border security legislation.

Mr. Fitzpatrick’s bill spends less and includes the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that would help keep asylum seekers from entering the U.S. before their cases are decided.

The floor negotiations with Mr. Johnson were going well, one lawmaker said, until it was interrupted by an angry Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Wisconsin Republican, who backs the larger aid package.