WASHINGTON– President Joe Biden will convene four top congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to pressure lawmakers to pass an emergency aid package for Ukraine and Israel, as well as to avoid an imminent government shutdown next month. according to a White House official.
The top four leaders include House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.
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, the White House official said, calling for anonymity. discuss a meeting not yet publicly confirmed.
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 legislation passed the Senate on a 70-29 vote earlier this month, but Johnson has resisted bringing the bill to a vote in the House.
“This is one of those cases where one person can change the course of history. If President Johnson introduces this bill, he would produce a strong bipartisan majority in favor of aid to Ukraine,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Sullivan noted that Ukrainians need weapons and ammunition to defend themselves against Russian forces, and that in his personal conversations with the speaker “he has indicated that he would like to obtain funding for Ukraine.”
Aside from the national security package, the first tranche of government funding is set to expire 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 sent to colleagues on Sunday, Schumer said there was still no agreement to avoid a partial shutdown of agencies whose funding expires this week. That includes the departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.
“While we hoped to have legislation ready this weekend that would give members enough time to review the language, it is now clear that House Republicans need more time to get their heads together,” Schumer wrote in the letter. The Senate majority leader called on Johnson to “step forward to once again confront the extremists in his group and do the right thing” by green-lighting funding to keep the government open.