Supplemental Aid's Turn in the Spotlight: Following months of a "will they or won't they" waiting game for House consideration of supplemental aid for Israel, Ukraine, and the Indo-Pacific region, Speaker Johnson has released text of three separate bills providing a total of $94 billion in funds for the aforementioned countries and regions. Upon its release, President Biden and the House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) expressed their support, noting the similarities between this package and the Senate foreign aid package. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that Johnson wanted to be on the right side of history. Additionally, Speaker Johnson has released a fourth bill with a mixed bag of policies members have been asking for, including making aid to Ukraine in the form a loan, additional sanctions on Iran, and revisions to the House-passed TikTok divestment bill. This fourth bill will be considered alongside the supplemental package.
The House is expected to vote on the package tomorrow. While the package likely has enough votes to pass the chamber, aid for Ukraine is the most controversial of the bills among House Republicans. Speaker Johnson has insisted that these bills improve upon the Senate package, and has emphasized the need to do the "right thing" and provide aid to Ukraine to stop Putin. Conservative members of the Republican conference expressed strong disapproval, with Rep. Thomas Massie publicly joining Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green's effort to oust Speaker Johnson from the speakership. Given the strong opposition from conservative lawmakers, Speaker Johnson will likely have to rely upon Democratic votes to pass the aid to Ukraine bill.
In the event all four bills pass the House tomorrow, these bills will be packaged together into a single bill for the Senate to consider, ensuring that the House package stays intact.
FY25: Both the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees have continued holding posture hearings with Cabinet Secretaries to discuss each Department's needs for FY25. This week's hearings included testimonies from HHS, DOD, Homeland Security, Agriculture, VA, Attorney General, and DOL secretaries, among others.
These hearings will help the subcommittees draft their FY25 appropriations bills as these committees look to make up for lost time caused by the delay in passage for FY24 appropriations. House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole has indicated he would like to see markups of these bills begin in May. At this time, the Appropriations Committee is waiting on a topline allocation from leadership. Once received, we expect the Committee to move quickly.
Final Cardinals Announced: Closing the loop on last week's House Appropriations Committee cardinal shuffle, Chairman Cole has announced the final cardinal change: Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) has become the Chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.
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