A Republican lawmaker has hinted at plans to trigger a process that would bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote in the lower chamber on replenishing aid to war-torn Ukraine.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is eyeing a rarely used parliamentary procedure known as a discharge petition, making him one of the first Republicans to publicly contemplate such an act of open defiance against the speaker.
“We have to get something done,” Fitzpatrick, told Axios Wednesday. “It’s existential, it’s time-sensitive. Whether that’s our product or somebody else’s, we’ve just got to get the money out the door to them.”
Johnson (R-La.) has expressed support for Ukraine but declined to take up a vote on aid to the beleaguered eastern European amid fierce pressure from his right flank to prioritize border security legislation.
The speaker has demanded that any new supplemental funds for Ukraine be paired with a crackdown on illegal immigration but opposed a bipartisan Senate deal meant to accomplish that — calling its provisions woefully inadequate.
House Democrats have toyed with the idea of a discharge petition, but would need GOP support to obtain the necessary 218 signatures for it to take effect.
Complicating the situation is the fact that dozens of progressives in the House of Representatives have become increasingly hostile to additional aid to Israel — another key part of any supplemental spending package — without conditions.
Earlier this month, Fitzpatrick teamed up with three other Republicans and four Democrats to pitch a $66 billion plan encompassing aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan as well as border reform.
So far that gambit has gained little traction.
A discharge petition is rarely deployed successfully. In 2015, House Republicans backed a discharge petition alongside Democrats to revive the Export-Import Bank.
Prior to that, the technique hadn’t been used successfully since 2002.
Fitzpatrick, who co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers’ Caucus and is generally seen as one of the most moderate members in the lower chamber, recently visited Ukraine ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s bloody invasion.
He returned from that trek and publicly painted a dire picture of the state of the conflict raging half a world away.
“In my travel to Ukraine, I met with my friend, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In our discussion, I promised I would do whatever necessary to pass our bipartisan bill providing urgently needed military aid to Ukraine and protecting democracy in the region,” he said at the time.
Democrats, including members of the Biden administration have needled Johnson, predicting that if the House takes up aid to Ukraine any form, it will pass.
Many Republican luminaries on foreign policy have grown increasingly uneasy about the delay in replenishing military support for Kyiv.
Earlier this month, Ukraine suffered a significant loss on the battlefield when it was forced to withdraw from the eastern city of Avdiivka, in one of Russia’s greatest victories in months.
White House officials blamed that defeat in part on the lack of munitions.
Other world leaders have conveyed a similar sentiment, with leadership in at least 23 parliaments around the world imploring Johnson to take up a vote on new aid.
President Biden had asked Congress to re-up aid last August, but House Republicans declined to do so demanding border security.
A $118 billion bipartisan supplemental with both border security and aid to Ukraine went belly up in the Senate earlier this month. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) then took up a $95 billion supplemental without the border provisions.
That package, featuring roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, cleared the upper chamber, but Johnson has declined to take it up.
Johnson had a one-on-one meeting with Biden on Tuesday after a discussion that included the other top four congressional leaders.
Fitzpatrick’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.