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April 20, 2024 For Immediate Release Contact: Taylor Haulsee
“We gave our members a voice. We gave them a better process and ultimately a much better policy.”
WASHINGTON — Today, following House passage of the national security supplemental, Speaker Johnson delivered remarks to press off the House floor.
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here
Read below for the full transcript of Speaker Johnson’s remarks:
The House has worked its will. These are not normal times here in the House or around the world as we all know, and we saw the disturbance here on the House floor just a bit ago. I just want to say simply what I think most people around the country understand and agree, we should only wave one flag on the House floor. And I think we know which flag that is.
I said these are not normal times, they’re not, the world is destabilized and it’s a tinderbox. It’s a dangerous time. Three of our primary adversaries, Russia, Iran, and China are working together, and they’re being aggressors around the globe. And they’re a global threat to our prosperity and our security. Their advance threatens the free world, and it demands American leadership. If we turn our backs right now the consequences could be devastating.
So, this afternoon, the House acted and we sent over to the Senate – it will be transmitted shortly – our supplemental national security legislation and make no mistake, this is not a blank check like the Senate supplemental bill was. This is very different. Instead of taking the path of least resistance and bringing up the Senate supplemental on the House floor, or just allowing a discharge petition to come forward – which would have had the same outcome – we gave our members a voice. We gave them a chance. We gave them a better process, and ultimately a much better policy.
Unlike the Senate’s blank check, the House legislation has a number of very important features. It provides for greater accountability over Ukraine aid. It forces an end-game strategy for the Ukraine war. It includes a loan instrument of this foreign aid to Ukraine and the REPO act to ensure that Russian assets pay for part of the bill. And unlike the Senate’s bill, the loan system itself is a House innovation, and allows for much needed insight. And remember that 80% of the Ukraine funding will go to the replenishment of American weapons and stocks and our facilities and our operations.
It also includes tough measures and sanctions on Iran and Russia and China, which most of the American people understand is a necessity and a very important thing. Our process in the end ensured that each member was able to consider the individual supplemental elements on their own merits, which is exactly how the House is supposed to work.
I know there are critics of the legislation, I understand that it is not a perfect piece of legislation. We’re not insured that in a time of divided government and at a time where there are lots of different opinions, but there is no question whatsoever that the House has made many strong improvements to the Senate bill. And the product that we’ve sent over there is much better. This package, I will note because it’s very important, also includes national security priorities and many of them, but it is the only way that we could have gotten Democrats to support aid to Israel. And that’s a fact.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about the bill. And I just want to make one point about one issue that has drawn a lot of attention and that is could any of this funding go to Hamas or to terrorist organizations or what have you. And we put safeguards in the legislation to ensure that UNRWA is not funded, the UN agency that included terrorists who participated in the October 7th attack on Israel. We’ve also had language that prevents it from going in either funding going to Hamas, or any other bad actors. That’s a very important element of oversight. Congress takes the oversight very seriously. And we will continue to keep an eye on every dollar that we’re using and investing at this time.
I’ve said it very simply. I’ll say it once again. It’s an old military adage, but we would rather send bullets to the conflict overseas than our own boys, our troops. And I think this is an important moment and important opportunity to make that decision. We allowed the House to do that. And I expect the Senate will make the same decision.
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