Ukraine aid could be Biden’s first big bat­tle with John­son

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s first show­down with the new speak­er of the House has already begun.
Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) has reject­ed Biden’s $106 bil­lion sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing request, which would have tied mon­ey for Israel to mon­ey for Ukraine, in favor of an Israel-only bill.
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“There are lots of things going on around the world that we have to address, and we will, but right now, what’s hap­pen­ing in Israel takes the imme­di­ate atten­tion, and I think we’ve got to sep­a­rate that and get it through. I believe there’ll be bipar­ti­san sup­port for that, and I’m going to push very hard for it,” John­son said on Fox News over the week­end.
The split comes as some con­ser­v­a­tives in the House have become skep­ti­cal of Ukraine fund­ing that does­n’t include a clear end goal for the war, decry­ing what they describe as a “blank check” pol­i­cy to date.
How­ev­er, there are oth­er par­ti­san points at play. John­son wants to fund $14.3 bil­lion for Israel by cut­ting a sim­i­lar amount from the IRS that would have gone to the agency under the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act.

Joe Biden and Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA).
AP

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