House Democrats — some of them, at least — are assembling support for what’s known as a discharge petition covering the previously Senate-passed foreign aid package setting up assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that has been delayed amid GOP complaints in the Republican Party-controlled House.
The petition, if successful, would force the Senate package to the House floor for a vote, bypassing the control normally exerted by what’s ultimately Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). Some predict that the House would pass the deal if it actually had the opportunity to vote on it following a bipartisan wave of support in the Senate, where Democrats lead. GOP leadership in the House remains insistent, in turn, on action on the southern border and immigration, though Senate Republicans recently voted down a proposal that was widely characterized as the toughest border bill in a long time.
One significant hurdle for the discharge petition is the basic nature of what would be needed for success: a majority in the House, where Republicans are narrowly in the lead. Breaking with Republican Party leadership to such an extent could be more of an ask for the party’s House members, especially in the current GOP, than backing something that already received bipartisan support and is put on the floor via more routine procedures. Per the Associated Press, a discharge petition was last successfully executed in 2015.
Pressure on House GOP leadership to get moving on the aid package has come in a White House meeting between legislative leaders and the president, President Joe Biden’s recent “State of the Union” address to Congress, and elsewhere. It contrasts with the position staked by Donald Trump as he nears an expected presidential nomination from the Republican Party for elections later this year. On the campaign trail, he threatened to support Russia in a potential military stand-off with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members if they failed to meet claimed spending obligations. Amid extensive condemnation, he stuck by the stance.
