House Speaker Mike Johnson (Photo: VNA) |
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said he has no intention to allow the House to take up a vote on the 95.3 billion USD aid package, most of which would go to Ukraine.
According to Johnson, the package “failed to meet the moment” by not addressing illegal immigration on the US’s southern border, which he described as the “most pressing issue facing our country”.
The US’s attempt to send further aid to Ukraine has been paralyzed for the last few months due to divide in Congress.
Democrats in the Senate have been working with Republicans to pen a bipartisan bill that would have paired foreign aid with the biggest overhaul of border and asylum policies in decades.
An earlier version of the bill was passed in Senate, but Johnson said it would be “dead on arrival”. His announcement prompted Senate on Tuesday to deliver another bill that includes foreign aids, but it was once again rejected by the House of Representatives.