WASHINGTON (CN) — A near-total eclipse wasn’t the only thing casting a long shadow over Washington on Monday as lawmakers returned from a two-week recess.
The end of Congress’ brief spring respite heralds a new challenge for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is weathering calls to bring a package of foreign aid up for a vote while simultaneously facing the possibility of his ouster from party leadership if he does so.
Before recess, Johnson suggested the House could take up a version of a supplemental funding bill passed by the Senate in February that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, the Republican speaker has since signaled that the House version of such legislation may shuffle provisions and include border security language, a longtime demand from some of the leader’s more conservative caucus members.
As of Monday afternoon, Johnson had yet to bring forward the House’s foreign aid package, and it remained unclear exactly what that measure would look like. Despite that, some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, urged the House speaker to take up the Senate-passed legislation post haste.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said foreign aid legislation should be “at the top” of Johnson’s to-do list as Congress returns to normal business.
“There is no time to waste,” Murray wrote Monday on X, formerly Twitter, pointing out that the upper chamber’s bill passed on a bipartisan basis and that it provides “desperately needed humanitarian aid to civilians caught in conflict.”
New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Senate’s foreign relations and armed services committees, concurred, writing that the House must pass the upper chamber’s foreign aid bill “to help Ukraine achieve victory.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also weighed in, pointing out in a speech on the Senate floor Monday that the Senate-passed measure has been on Johnson’s desk for more than 50 days.
Senate Democrats will “continue to keep pressure on the House to act” on the measure until the lower chamber chooses to take it up, Schumer wrote in a Friday post on X.
Johnson has also faced pressure to move ahead with Ukraine aid from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Trump administration official told the House speaker in a letter last week to “lead with conviction” and bring the package up for a vote.
“We understand the pressure in an election year to set aside national defense issues ‘over there’ for the sake of domestic needs here,” wrote Pompeo and John Walters, president and CEO of the Hudson Institute. “But none of our challenges at home will be made better by abandoning our allies at this time of great need, when they are staring down enemies of the free world.”
Although Johnson appears poised to bring some version of a foreign aid package to the House floor, that move may prove a poison pill for some of his Republican colleagues who have railed in particular against U.S. spending on assistance for Ukraine and have in recent weeks called into question the speaker’s leadership.
Chief among those critics has been Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime opponent of Ukraine aid who before spring recess filed a motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership after he made a deal with Democrats to pass a $1.2 trillion spending bill and avoid a partial government shutdown.
Like the budget measure, any foreign aid legislation would need to secure a two-thirds majority in the House — meaning Johnson would likely have to woo some Democrats if he hopes to see the bill pass in the lower chamber.
Greene on Monday made it clear that she would not accept such bipartisanship.
“Our Republican Speaker of the House is upsetting many of our members by relying on Democrats to pass major bills,” she wrote on X, adding that Johnson’s working relationship with Democrats is “giving them everything they want.”
“That makes him the Democrat Speaker of the House,” she added, “not out Republican Speaker of the House.”
Greene's motion to vacate the speakership, introduced last month, remains stagnant in the House — but she can, at any point, pull a procedural lever demanding the measure be considered for a vote. The lawmaker has so far framed her motion as a warning to Speaker Johnson, who she has repeatedly said is not representing the interests of House Republicans.
While it’s not clear any motion to vacate Johnson would clear the House, thanks in part to likely opposition from Democrats, it’s the second time congressional Republicans have had to contend with a possible leadership crisis. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was railroaded out of his post under similar circumstances last fall.
The Senate’s foreign aid bill, passed in February, includes $60 billion for Ukraine’s yearslong battle against Russia. The measure also includes roughly $14 billion in aid for Israel, $4.8 billion for Taiwan and other allies in the Pacific region and $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid.
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