Republican Chairman Johnson renews support for Ukraine

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to maintain his fragile grip on power by winning Congressional approval for new military aid to Ukraine.

But with Democrats on guard and the Republican right eyeing open rebellion, Mr. Johnson may find that even his best-laid plans can quickly fall apart.

A Louisiana congressman told Fox News he plans to push the House, which has the slimmest Republican majority, to structure new aid for Ukraine in the form of a loan.

To help pay for it, he proposed giving the U.S. government the power to seize and sell Russian assets that have been frozen since the start of the war in Ukraine.

“If we can use the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to help Ukrainians fight them, that's just poetry,” Johnson said.

An estimated $300bn (£239bn) of Russia's central bank assets have been frozen, most of which are under European rather than American control.

He also proposed tying passage of the Ukraine aid to legislation that would end the hold on new liquefied natural gas export licenses, as an additional sweetener for his Republican colleagues. The hold was imposed by the Biden administration in January at the request of environmental activists.

This is not the first time Republicans have tried to link aid to Ukraine – opposed by a growing number of conservative voters and a small but vocal group of lawmakers – to political priorities unrelated to the party. Senate Republicans in February negotiated with Democrats to build a bill that would include funding for Ukraine, along with resources for conservative immigration reform and border security.

But the deal fell apart after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced his opposition and his supporters in Congress, including Johnson in the House of Representatives, followed suit.

The White House has said approved aid to Ukraine ran out at the beginning of the year and has repeatedly warned that the country is losing ground in the war against Russia due to a lack of continued U.S. support.

In the House of Commons, pro-aid MPs are gathering signatures for a parliamentary procedure to force a vote on a Senate-approved bill authorizing new aid to Ukraine and Israel, effectively forcing Mr Johnson's hand. .

The Speaker's latest proposal may be a way to prevent such a direct erosion of his power to set the legislative policy agenda.

But Mr Johnson is in a precarious position as he grapples with how to help Ukraine. He took over as chairman last year after a right-wing revolt ousted his predecessor, and he faces similar fears from the party's hard-core right wing.

His deal with Democrats two weeks ago to avert a government shutdown prompted conservative firebrand Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to file a motion to remove him from office. did. He has not taken any steps to force a vote on the issue, but has threatened to do so if Mr Johnson is not ultimately removed.

Later this month, the number of Republicans in the House will drop to 217. That means just two Republicans would need to join the House's 213 Democrats to begin a move to oust Johnson.

On Sunday night, Mr Johnson sought to reset expectations for his party and give himself some breathing room.

“Literally, we have the smallest majority right now in American history,” he said. “So we’re not going to get the bill that we all want and like.”

This mathematical reality places the speaker in a delicate situation. If he angers a small number of Republicans, such as by signing an aid deal for Ukraine, he could spark a riot. And if he doesn't do enough to appease Democrats, they may once again help recalcitrant conservatives carry out their plots.

With national elections scheduled for November to determine the presidency and control of both houses of Congress, Mr. Johnson and his fellow Republicans cannot afford to appear so internally divided that they are incapable of governing.

“It's not an easy task at this point,” Johnson said.