“What I hope is that the House will pass the Senate bill and let the House run its course. If they change it and send it back here, we're going to have further delays,” McConnell said Tuesday afternoon. “We don't want the Russians to win in Ukraine. So we have a timing problem here. And I think the best way to move quickly and get the bill to the president would be for the House to pass the Senate bill and pass it.”
He similarly defended the Senate legislation in a private meeting, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
McConnell's move underscored that the two men are dealing in starkly different ways with the kind of pressure they face from conservatives who have no interest in providing aid to Ukraine. While McConnell is sensitive to Johnson's tough stance, their young relationship is different from his partnership with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who earned McConnell's wide respect during last year's debt ceiling negotiations.
Still, Tuesday's meeting underscored Johnson's isolation among congressional leaders. And while remaining separate from the Senate is not a high-profile House position, it complicates Johnson's leadership of the chamber given the political, policy and tactical differences facing congressional Republicans in a crucial election year.
While McConnell, 82, sees the fight for Ukraine aid as crucial to his 40-year legacy in the Senate, Johnson is about five months into a shock promotion as speaker and is already facing severe anxiety from his own members. Even Democrats are sympathetic to Johnson's ever-present threat of impeachment if conservatives decide to force a vote of no confidence in his presidency.
McConnell faces criticism from the rank and file, but at least he knows his conservative foes will probably have to wait until November's leadership election to make it official.
“I don't know how many political lives he has. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said of the speaker. “But I think it's really important that we finish (Ukraine).”
Cornyn has suggested Johnson add a tough border security bill to the Ukraine legislation, and he didn't go as far as McConnell in advising Johnson to simply pass the Senate bill. That's “easy for senators to say,” Cornyn said, adding that Johnson is “trying to figure it out, and I wish him well.”
On Tuesday, Johnson clashed with top Democrats in the chamber, including Biden, the Senate majority leader. Chuck Schumerand House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – they all pushed for Ukraine. Schumer noted publicly that “McConnell was the main speaker who said we have to do Ukraine” at the meeting, describing it as one of the most intense discussions in the room.
“The consensus in that room was that Zelensky and Ukraine would lose the war” if the US did not provide aid, Schumer also warned.
While all four top leaders are now apparently locked in to avoid a government shutdown, Johnson has remained uncommitted to the overseas emergency aid bill, saying only that lawmakers should prioritize the US border before helping an ally abroad. He's pushing Biden to take executive action to tighten security on the southern border before turning to Ukraine, and he's not alone in that view.
“That's how it would work if we did it, if the president took those executive actions,” the senator said. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who joins Johnson on the border.
Johnson had earlier promised to receive aid to Ukraine. But since then, he's heard loud warnings from conservatives like Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) — including threats to vote to remove him as speaker if he moves forward on such aid.
After all, Johnson could watch his centrist group tackle the problem without him. Several Republicans are still open to joining hands with Democrats to bypass the embattled speaker and pass a separate bill with the Ukraine border.
Meanwhile, McConnell has taken arrows to push a border and foreign aid package that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) even called on the Kentucky Republican to step down on the issue earlier this month, and conservatives on Tuesday pushed back against McConnell's defense of Ukraine.
“Who was protecting the American taxpayer? Or for Americans harmed by Biden's open border policy?” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
response to the meeting.
There is more light on the GOP's funding strategy between Johnson and McConnell, who said Monday that Congress should move “toward clean appropriations and away from the cold pill.” Johnson and his House allies are fighting for conservative policy limits in spending bills that Democrats say they won't pass.
The first opportunity for a partial shutdown comes this week with Friday's funding deadline. Sen. John F. Kennedy (R-La.), who is close to Johnson, said he wasn't sure if the speaker could pass a “continuing resolution” to avoid a funding failure, though that appears to be the only way to a shutdown.
“I don't see a lot of coordination,” Kennedy said of House and Senate Republicans. “We can just keep doing these short-term (continuing resolutions) until now until the election.”
Johnson has pledged to honor the so-called 72-hour rule and give his members time to review any deal that is secured. That leaves little time for a bunch of government agencies to run out of money on Saturday.
He also vowed to continue trying to pass all 12 individual spending bills, raising expectations that Johnson will continue to push the same type of stopgap spending lines he has vowed to avoid.
Finger-pointing is already underway between Schumer and Johnson over who will bear responsibility in the event of a shutdown. Importantly, however, Republicans have failed over the past three decades to use shutdowns to get the concessions they demand.
That includes in 1995, former Speaker Newt Gingrich tried unsuccessfully to use the partial shutdown to get cuts from then-President Bill Clinton. Most recently, former President Donald Trump failed to raise money for his border wall in 2018 after a record 35 days of protracted shutdowns.
“It's just a road to nowhere in the middle of the night,” Sen said. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) shutdown. “March of Misery. Nobody wins.”
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