Follow us on social

What will new Speaker Johnson do about Ukraine-Israel aid?

What will new Speaker Johnson do about Ukraine-Israel aid?

The Louisiana Republican has voted against every package for Kyiv

Reporting | QiOSK

The search for a new House Speaker finally concluded on Wednesday with the fourth Republican caucus nominee Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) prevailing on the floor, earning the vote of every GOP member.

No doubt, the first major issue facing the House right now is President Joe Biden’s emergency spending bill, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

The new Speaker has not commented on how will approach the massive funding bill. When asked about it on Tuesday evening after emerging as the Republican nominee, he told reporters that he was “not doing policy tonight.”

A legislative plan that Johnson circulated two days before clinching the Speakership names support for Rep. Mike McCaul’s (R-Texas) resolution condemning Hamas as a top priority, but he does not mention the funding package. However, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said on CNN that it was his “understanding” that Johnson was willing to bring the legislation to the floor.

While sending more aid to Ukraine has proven a key sticking point among Republicans in a series of Congressional debates in recent months, Johnson has not been outspoken on either side of the issue. In the weeks following Russia’s invasion, Johnson supported “debilitating sanctions” on Moscow and posted on X that “America stands with Ukraine.”

However, by May 2022, Johnson was one of only 57 members to vote against the first tranche of $40 billion in supplemental aid to Ukraine. He released a statement saying, “‘We should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go.”

He has consistently opposed aid for Kyiv since then. His voting record has earned him an “F” grade in Bill Kristol’s GOP Congressional Report Card.

Meanwhile, the packaging of Israel and Ukraine into one bill has been a divisive question in the Republican caucus, including some who are strong supporters of funding Tel Aviv and Kyiv individually.

Nine Republican Senators, led by Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) wrote a letter to Senate leadership last week urging them to consider the issues of funding for Tel Aviv and Kyiv separately.

“These are two separate conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage support of aid to Israel in attempt to get additional aid for Ukraine across the finish line,” the Senators write. “Furthermore, it would be irresponsible and we should not risk a government shutdown by bundling these priorities together and thus complicating the process and lessening the likelihood of a funding package.”

The letter also notes that “22 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to the then-leading candidates to be the next Speaker of the House urging them to deny attempts to couple these issues.” The House members who have been opposed to linking the two issues will likely seek to exert similar pressure on Johnson.

Many Republicans with similar voting records as Johnson have adopted more aggressive rhetoric than he has toward Ukraine and Biden’s strategy. Given that he — like the rest of the GOP conference — has expressed unequivocal support for Israel — Johnson may be willing to bring the combined package up to a vote.


U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), the new House Speaker, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., October 25, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Reporting | QiOSK
 Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Sudan
Top image credit: Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan gestures to soldiers inside the presidential palace after the Sudanese army said it had taken control of the building, in the capital Khartoum, Sudan March 26, 2025. Sudan Transitional Sovereignty Council/Handout via REUTERS

Saudi Arabia chooses sides in Sudan's civil war

Africa

In the final days of Ramadan, before Mecca's Grand Mosque, Sudan's de facto president and army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan knelt in prayer beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Al-Burhan had arrived in the kingdom just two days after his troops dealt a significant blow to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), recapturing the capital Khartoum after two years of civil war. Missing from the frame was the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Gulf power that has backed al-Burhan’s rivals in Sudan’s civil war with arms, mercenaries, and political cover.

The scene captured the essence of a deepening rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE — once allies in reshaping the Arab world, now architects of competing visions for Sudan and the region.

For two years, Sudan has been enveloped in chaos. The conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed forces (SAF) and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo "Hemedti," has inflicted immense suffering: an estimated 150,000 killed, allegations of mass atrocities staining both sides but particularly the RSF in Darfur, 12 million displaced, and over half the population facing acute food insecurity.

keep readingShow less
Donald Trump Massad Boulos
Top image credit: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump is joined by Massad Boulos, who was recently named as a 'senior advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs,' during a campaign stop at the Great Commoner restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., on November 1, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Trump tasks first time envoy with the most complex Africa conflict

Africa

As the war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and allied militias against the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group continues, the Trump administration is reportedly tapping Massad Boulos as the State Department’s special envoy to the African Great Lakes region.

In this capacity, Boulos will be responsible for leading the American diplomatic effort to bring long-desired stability to the region and to end a conflict that has been raging in the eastern DRC for decades.

keep readingShow less
Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?
Top photo credit: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) (Gage Skidmore /Creative Commons) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) )( USDA photo by Preston Keres)

Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?

QiOSK

Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have co-written a letter to the White House, demanding to know the administration’s strategy behind the now-18 days of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

The letter calls into question the supposed intent of these strikes “to establish deterrence,” acknowledging that neither the Biden administration’s strikes in October 2023, nor the years-long bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2020, were successful in debilitating the military organization's military capabilities.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.