Speaker Johnson Remains Resistance To Foreign Aid Package

Jake Sherman at Punchbowl reporting that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pushed back against comments from a bipartisan group of committee chairs who indicated the Speaker had agreed to a floor vote on a new foreign aid package.

• CNN's Manu Raju reported on X on Wednesday: "House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul [R-TX], who is working on a foreign aid package with Ukraine money and border provisions, expressed confidence today that a bill will be on the floor after government funding is done on March 22. Asked if Johnson has committed to that, McCaul told me today: “I think so.""
• Johnson responded: "No, I don't know where they got that. I saw that last night. That is not true. I have been 100% laser focused on the approps. There are multiple groups working on different things but... I havent had a minute of time to give to it."
• Johnson also addressed the prospect of a handful of Republican Reps signing onto a discharge petition to bring an aid bill to the floor without consent from the Speaker: "I'm certainly discouraging a discharge. I don't think that's a norm that we want to break in the institution. And I'm working actively against that."
• Although several Republicans have indicated they may be open to a discharge petition, the procedural maneuver rarely comes to pass.
• President Biden said in his SOTU yesterday: “I say this to Congress: We have to stand up to Putin. Send me a bipartisan national security bill. History is literally watching.”