President Joe Biden will convene the four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the emergency aid package for Ukraine and Israel and how to avoid a government shutdown next month
From
SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press
February 25, 2024, 6:00 p.m. ET
• 3 min reading
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will convene the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to pass an emergency aid package for Ukraine and Israel and avert a looming government shutdown next month, according to a White House official.
The four leaders include House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
During the meeting, the president will discuss the “urgency” of passing the relief package, which has bipartisan support, as well as legislation to keep the federal government running through the end of September, said the White House official, who was granted anonymity not publicly confirmed meeting.
The Republican-led House of Representatives is under pressure to pass the $95 billion national security package that bolsters aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. That bill passed the Senate by a vote of 70-29 earlier this month, but Johnson refused to send the relief bill to the House for a vote.
“This is one of those cases where one person can influence the course of history. “Speaker Johnson, if he brought this bill to the floor, would produce a strong, bipartisan majority for aid to Ukraine,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” .
Sullivan emphasized that Ukrainians need weapons and ammunition to fend off Russian forces and that in his personal conversations with the speaker he “indicated that he would like to receive funding for Ukraine.”
Regardless of the national security package, the first tranche of government funding expires on Friday. The rest of the federal government, including agencies such as the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, expires on March 8.
In a letter to his colleagues on Sunday, Schumer said there was no agreement yet to prevent a partial shutdown of the agencies, whose funding expires this week. These include the departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.
“While we had hoped to finalize legislation this weekend that would give members enough time to consider the text, it is now clear that House Republicans need more time to get their bearings,” Schumer wrote in the letter. The Senate majority leader called on Johnson to “again stand up to the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing” by greenlighting funding to keep the government open.
Johnson said Schumer's letter was “counterproductive” and said Democrats were pushing their own unrealistic political demands.
“This is no time for petty politics,” Johnson said in a statement. “House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately.”