Wisconsin delegation expresses support for House vote on foreign aid package

WASHINGTON – The House is poised this weekend to send billions of dollars in aid to allies abroad after months of inaction, and Wisconsin's lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear receptive to the latest plan.

The $95 billion proposal from House Speaker Mike Johnson would provide military assistance to Ukraine and Israel, reinforce defenses for Taiwan and provide humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

The legislation is similar to an aid package the Senate passed in February. But it splits the measures into individual bills: One for Ukraine, one for Israel, one for the Indo-Pacific and a fourth bill that covers other Republican priorities, including provisions to seize Russian assets and Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher's legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S. If passed, the bills will be combined and sent to the Senate.

Several members of Wisconsin's House delegation this week expressed support for separating the aid packages. The structure will allow lawmakers to support one measure and oppose another without jeopardizing the whole package.

"I personally like it because I've said all along I support Ukraine funding and I had concerns on Israel funding," Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. "And now I can express it through a vote."

Similarly, Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald indicated to the Journal Sentinel the proposal would give members, including himself, flexibility in their votes. He said he would "absolutely" vote for support to Israel but said he was unsure of his support for Ukraine aid, raising concerns about oversight of the funds to the country.

"We cannot take what the U.S. Senate sent over," Fitzgerald said of the package that grouped the aid measures together. "There's no way. We couldn't do it."

Republican Rep. Bryan Steil put it this way: "I think (having) people on the record on the votes is always a good thing. It’s going to be the will of the people. I think it’s a good opportunity.”

The strategy from Johnson, set for a Saturday vote in the House, is in large part an effort to appease House Republicans who have rejected the idea of sending more aid to Ukraine during a time when national security officials have stressed an urgent need to get support to U.S. allies.

Supporters of Ukraine have warned the country is running out of ammunition to fight back against Russia, and Iran last weekend launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Israel, though to little effect.

But the plan is also picking up steam among liberal members of Congress, like Pocan, who have been adamant in their opposition to providing more offensive capabilities to Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to grow.

Pocan earlier this month led a letter to President Joe Biden and Sec. of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to “reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers” in light of an Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Pocan told the Journal Sentinel he raised the concerns directly to Biden when the president visited Madison last week. And he's been in contact with administration officials since. Pocan and 55 other Democrats signed the letter.

Johnson, however, has faced threats from his far right flank to oust him from his role should he move forward on additional funding to Ukraine.

Specifically, the House aid package would provide about $60.8 billion in aid to Ukraine, including about $13.8 billion to procure weapons from the U.S. and billions more in economic assistance; about $26.3 billion to Israel, including humanitarian assistance; and just over $8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific in an effort to deter China's threat to the island.

The fourth measure is expected to include stipulations that some aid to Ukraine be in the form of loans, Gallagher's TikTok legislation that passed the House last month, as well as a measure that would sell off seized Russian assets in order to help fund Ukraine's resistance.

The plan has Biden's support. And Johnson, the speaker, this week called sending lethal aid to Ukraine right now "critically important." He noted a portion of the funds would go back into the U.S. industrial base — with some earmarked to replenish the U.S.'s own stockpiles.

(To date, the Department of Defense has spent about $499 million in Wisconsin from previous Ukraine aid packages, a Pentagon official told the Journal Sentinel. That figure includes $60 million for tactical vehicle production in Oshkosh and about $350 million "to multiple suppliers for ammunition and associated components" elsewhere in the state.)

"I'm gonna allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will on this," Johnson told reporters Wednesday. "I think that's the way this institution is supposed to work, and I'm willing to take personal risk for that because we have to do the right thing. And history will judge us."

House Democratic leaders have said getting support to allies is in the U.S.'s own national security interests.

In Wisconsin's delegation, Republicans like Rep. Glenn Grothman and Tom Tiffany took issue with the absence of U.S.-Mexico border legislation from the bill.

Tiffany told the Journal Sentinel he'd like to see Ukraine aid paired with border legislation. But he noted he'd likely support funding for Israel and Taiwan, though he's unlikely to support additional aid to Ukraine.

Gallagher, one of Congress' leading defense hawks who planned to leave Congress for good on Friday, said he would extend his tenure through Saturday to support the legislation.

Freshman Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden said of the separate bills: "It's how we should be running this House."

Still, if the bills pass the House, they will likely be sent to the Senate as one package.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson earlier this week maintained his opposition to additional Ukraine funding and reiterated his calls to address the southern border. He noted he'd prefer the bills come to the Senate individually, saying: "I know why they combine bills. It's to get people to swallow something they don't like to pass something they do. We ought to pick things up, take things up as single issues more often."

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, meanwhile, expressed support Thursday for the aid packages to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, saying the bills "will help keep our country safe, support our allies like Ukraine and Israel to defend themselves, and get desperately needed aid into Gaza and around the globe.”

Thursday evening, the threat of a motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership led by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie still loomed. But the move has been widely rejected by Wisconsin Republicans.

Van Orden clashed with far-right lawmakers on the House floor over the idea Thursday. And Fitzgerald and Tiffany told the Journal Sentinel this week they weren't supportive of the maneuver.

"That was three weeks of turmoil that we didn’t need," Fitzgerald said of the October ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. "It set us back, I think, and we’re still recovering from it.”

For now, however, the House is set for a Saturday vote.

"For me, I'm much happier because I really did want to express support for Ukraine," Pocan said of the proposal. "But it would have been a very tough decision" (if everything was packaged together).

He added: "Do I vote for bombs to kill starving kids in Gaza in order to support Ukraine? Is that really a fair tradeoff?"

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin delegation expresses support for vote on foreign aid package