On the occasion of a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Joe Biden, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called out Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) here in the United States for the delays so far around the House potentially voting on a foreign aid package passed with a wave of bipartisan support by the Senate. The assistance includes tens of billions of dollars worth of new security help for Ukraine amid an ongoing Russian invasion.
“This is not some political skirmish that only matters here in America. The absence of this positive decision of Mr. Johnson will really cost thousands of lives there: children, women. He must be aware of his personal responsibility,” Tusk reportedly stated.
Poland, a fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has also been involved in providing security assistance to Ukraine amid the conflict currently raging there. And Tusk himself has addressed the delayed pace of new help from the United States amid Republican opposition, condemning Senate Republicans after they voted down an earlier proposal that linked new aid for Ukraine with changes domestically to border policy. It was a bipartisan deal that was widely characterized as some of the toughest border legislation in years, but Republicans claimed it deficient and left the U.S. with nothing in terms of new legislation.
“Dear Republican Senators of America. Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today. Shame on you,” Tusk said online at the time.
In the House, Democrats have been assembling support for what’s called a discharge petition that this time covers the Senate’s already passed foreign aid deal. If support for the petition reaches a majority of that lower legislative chamber, it’ll force the proposal to the floor for a vote, bypassing the control of voting ordinarily exerted by the Speaker.
