On 11 November, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, introduced a bill that does not provide for financial aid to Ukraine. This was reported by columnist Emily Brooks in an article for The Hill online news and analysis website.
Emily Brooks said that the Speaker of the House of Representatives showed the bill on temporary funding of the federal government. The observer noted that this document does not provide for financial assistance to Israel, Ukraine, as well as appropriations for the defence of the southern borders of the USA.
If the proposed document is not agreed upon by 17 November, the federal government will be suspended. According to the publication, Mike Johnson’s plan suggests extending the financial allocations of some government departments and programmes until 19 January 2024, others – until 2 February.
The material emphasises that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is sure that it is necessary to consider separately the issues of financing the federal government and the allocation of funds to Israel, Ukraine, as well as strengthening the American southern border. According to Johnson, in this way the United States will be able to avoid a “shutdown”.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the bill as “a recipe for more chaos on the part of Republicans.” The statement noted that Republicans are “wasting precious time on an unserious proposal criticised by members of both parties”.
The newspaper Politico in turn emphasised that the proposed initiative by the Speaker of the House of Representatives is already meeting some resistance from representatives of the Republican Party. The publication notes that such sentiments in the ranks of the Republicans reduce the likelihood that the bill will be passed in the lower house of the U.S. Congress, where they have a majority.
The material specifies that even if Johnson’s proposal is adopted in the House of Representatives, it will undoubtedly be blocked by Democrats in the Senate. Thus, the newspaper summarised that this bill is unlikely to help avoid a shutdown of the federal government.
Earlier, Responsible Statecraft columnist Daniel Larison said that US President Joe Biden’s attempt to tie aid to Ukraine to support for Israel could leave both countries without aid. In Larison’s opinion, the US president lied when he said that the victory of Ukraine and Israel was “vital” for the strategic security of the USA.