Battle of the Mikes: Sen. Lee Calls Out Speaker Johnson

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday night after it was revealed that House Republicans were planning to attempt to pass four bills, including one that would send more aid to Ukraine, under the guise of one.

Johnson revealed during a closed House Republican Conference meeting that he had a plan to pass four separate bills, three of which would focus on sending aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

A fourth bill would focus on “additional measures to counter” adversaries of the United States and to “strengthen our national security,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

Under Johnson’s plan, all four bills would be combined into a single legislation package, and a single vote would be held. If successful, the vote would unlock separate votes on each of the four bills.

“The GOP shouldn’t help Biden hold other priorities hostage to leverage additional aid to Ukraine,” Lee wrote in a post on X. “In no case should multiple, separately passed bills on these topics-including Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and TikTok-be sent from the House to the Senate as a single, combined bill.”

The legislation package would only need to receive a majority of support on the floor in order to pass, as would each of the four separate bills.

Johnson, who was once strongly opposed to sending more monetary aid to Ukraine, has seemingly flip-flopped on his views.

Republicans, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have criticized Johnson. On March 22, Greene filed a motion to strip Johnson of his position as speaker of the House, the same procedural motion that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) used to strip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the speakership after nine months.

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After meeting with Johnson on April 10, Greene revealed that she informed Johnson that he was “the Republican leader” and the “leader of the opposition party against the Biden administration, and we expect him to lead that way, not to pass the Biden administration’s agenda.”

Greene also revealed that she had not made up her mind about forcing a vote on the motion to vacate, adding that Johnson’s future as speaker of the House would be based on how he handled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and sending additional funding to Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia.

Johnson’s plan comes after the Senate passed a $95.3 billion supplemental aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan in February.

In March, Johnson moved a $1.2 trillion spending bill forward under “suspension of the rules,” which requires two-thirds of support but can bypass procedural opposition from conservatives in the House, in an attempt to pass legislation that Republicans otherwise would not have supported.