Speaker Mike Johnson made “unequivocally” clear that he wants to avoid a government shutdown during a private Tuesday meeting with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Biden’s stalled request for Ukraine aid, however, remains more in doubt.
With just four days to go until federal funding partially runs out, congressional leaders emerged from the meeting with the president optimistic they could avoid a shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Capitol that the meeting focused mainly on keeping the government open, “which I think we all can agree on.”
It’s become fairly clear that Congress needs a stopgap patch to avoid a partial shutdown on Saturday at midnight. Schumer said to ask Johnson about the possibility of passing such a short-term bill; Johnson has been trying to avoid a so-called continuing resolution, but there may be little other choice at this point.
While both parties’ leaders were relatively aligned on a government spending stopgap, the White House sitdown also featured an “intense” component focused on Ukraine, Schumer said. That moment saw every other person in the room pressuring Johnson in stark terms about the urgency of sending aid.
Johnson reiterated that his chief focus is border security — despite rejecting a bipartisan Senate bill on the matter just weeks ago — a stance that further complicates the future of a Senate-passed, $95 billion foreign aid bill.
“It was intense because everyone in that room is telling Speaker Johnson how vital it is … I’ve rarely seen a meeting with the passion, the importance of getting something done,” Schumer told reporters at the Capitol after the meeting. He added that “McConnell was the lead speaker in saying we needed to do Ukraine.”
The Senate GOP leader opted not to appear with Johnson before reporters following the meeting, returning quickly to the Capitol and leaving the speaker alone to make his case.
Schumer said he told Johnson that Congress “can’t tarry” further on aiding Ukraine following the GOP rejection of the Senate border bill.
Johnson and Biden also clashed over whether Biden should take executive action to prevent migrant crossings, with Johnson urging Biden to take unilateral action and Biden asking Congress to fulfill his spending request for more border security.
And Johnson appeared to shrug off the immediate urgency of supplying needed lethal aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russia, arguing that he wants a plan to address rising southern border crossings first. He said he had a one-on-one meeting with Biden after the other leaders left, that he believed a shutdown could be avoided and that the House would address Ukraine “in a timely manner.”
“We have to take care of America’s needs first,” Johnson said while leaving the White House, while arguing “the catastrophe at the border is affecting everyone” and that Biden should take executive action to stem the record-high number of illegal border crossings.
Johnson’s comfort with prioritizing the border before Ukraine is belied by growing concerns that Kyiv’s fight against Russian aggression will begin slipping as the U.S. keeps stalling on additional resources. Schumer recently returned from Ukraine and told Johnson face-to-face that he faces a historic choice in whether to put Ukraine aid on the House floor.
“This is an existential moment for the free world as it relates to being there for our allies in Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific,” Jeffries said.
