US House speaker reports spending, sanctions bills to come Tuesday

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said spending legislation will be released later on Tuesday with lawmakers still hammering out final figures, as the House prepares to vote on four separate measures providing aid to Israel and Ukraine.

The measures, which would also include aid to Taiwan and US allies in the Indo-Pacific, could come for a vote as early as Friday — more than two months after the Senate passed a bill providing additional assistance for the two allies embroiled in conflict.

Johnson, in an interview on Fox News, said the fourth bill addressing national security priorities will include additional sanctions on Russia and Iran as well as a provision regarding the "seizure of corrupt Russian oligarchs' assets to assist with all this."

He also said lawmakers are "trying merge some" provisions to secure the US border into the legislation but gave no additional details. Regarding the spending amounts, "some of that's still being decided," Johnson said, adding that lawmakers could to amend the measures to require "pay fors" to offset costs.

Democratic US President Joe Biden has been pushing Johnson to allow a vote on supplemental funding, as have Senate Republicans and Democrats. But Johnson had given a variety of reasons to delay, including them the need to focus taxpayer dollars on domestic issues.

Many hard-right Republicans, especially those closely allied with former President Donald Trump, who is challenging Biden in the November presidential election, have been skeptical of assisting Kyiv in its fight against Russia and fiercely oppose sending billions more dollars to Ukraine.

Reuters