White House comments on Speaker Johnson's plans to introduce innovations in Ukraine bill

US President Joe Biden’s administration has commented on the statement by US House Speaker Mike Johnson that the aid package for Ukraine will include some important innovations, including the possible allocation of aid on credit.

Source: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a briefing, as reported by European Pravda

Details: When asked if this is the only way to make a decision on aid to Ukraine, and whether the president will sign such a bill, Jean-Pierre called on Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to promote the Senate-approved bill to help Kyiv.

"We’ve been very clear.  We believe if the Speaker were to put the national security supplemental on the floor – obviously, it includes Ukraine, humanitarian aid, Israel, the Indo-Pacific – we believe and it is fact that it would get majority bipartisan support on – on the floor in the House," she said.

She reiterated that the aid package for Ukraine received the votes of 70 senators to 29, which is proof of its bipartisan support.

"And so, that’s what we believe the – the Speaker – how it should be moved forward.  I’m just not going to get into hypotheticals," she concluded.

Background:

• Earlier, Johnson announced that the aid package for Ukraine would include "some important innovations", including a possible loan.

• These statements came after Johnson made it clear that he intended to push through legislation that would provide funding for Ukraine, but he had not yet decided what exactly the bill would look like.

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner expressed confidence that aid to Ukraine would have "overwhelming support" when Congress came back to work, underscoring Johnson's promise to make funding for Ukraine a priority after the recess.

• The approval of more than US$60 billion in aid to Ukraine by the US Congress is currently being blocked by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The White House has repeatedly warned that this would significantly harm Kyiv's military efforts on the battlefield.

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