Ukraine Aid Approved

and what it tells us about the GOP controlled House

The split in the House GOP Caucus opened wide and revealed its chasms.

First, the House passed a rule to vote on the aid. The rule passed 316-94.

Then, the aid bill for Ukraine passed 311-112.

Rule votes are usually pure partisanship. When the matter is bipartisan (aka hugely popular), ideology is the only offset. Voting against the rule on bipartisan legislation says “Not only do I oppose the bill, I am opposed to it even being considered for a vote.”

In the age of Trumpism, it means that Trump said “NO”.

Sixty-one Republicans voted against the rule —nearly 28% of the GOP Caucus.¹ Put another way, more than a fourth of the House GOP are in full revolt against their own leadership.

It should be noted 33 Democrats (all Progressives) opposed the rule as well — owing to concerns over giving Israel unfettered funds in its War with Hamas. But the Democrats are not running the House; and in the end, their 33 “No” votes on the rule is only about 15% of the House Democratic Caucus,

In analyzing the vote, the New York Times divided the House into four groups: Progressive Democrats, regular Democrats, Republicans, and Hard Right Republicans.

The progressive Democrats are members of the House Progressive Caucus. The Hard Right Republicans were either elected in 2022 with the backing by the House Freedom Fund (the campaign conduit for the House Freedom Caucus — the renamed Tea Party folks), opposed the election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in 2023, or actively worked to depose Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in 2023.

While an interesting breakdown, the bigger story at play is that the House GOP majority could only muster 149 votes in support of the rule. A third of the Republican in the House opposed even bringing the Foreign Aid package to a vote.² That package included aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Iran Sanctions, which the House GOP overwhemingly supported.

To say opposition to the rule was about aid to Ukraine is an understatement. Forty of the 44 House Republicans denoted by the New York Times as Hard Right Republicans voted against Ukraine aid; and 72 of 174 Republicans, who aren’t actively trying to destroy the House Republican leadership, also voted “No”.

More than half of the House GOP has either sided with Donald Trump, are pro-Putin, or have taken the position that you should laud and praise the forces that tried to destroy your Capitol. The parallels of the latter to the War of 1812 are disturbing.

NOTE: For those who are terribly good at math, it probably has occured to you that there are, with the House of Representatives having 435 members, a bunch of missing votes on the rule. First, there were 4 vacancies in the House at the time of the vote (3 Republicans and 1 Democrat had resigned at the time of the vote and special elections must be held to replace those representatives).³ Also, 21 members of Congress either failed to vote on the entire Foreign Aid Package (3 Republicans and 2 Democrats — usually a sign of illness) or figured out the best way not to earn the enmity of their respective party leaders is to skip voting on the rule itself. Nine Republicans and 7 Democrats grabbed that option.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/20/us/politics/ukraine-israel-foreign-aid-vote.html?smid=url-share

2. 61 voted “no on the rule, but another 12 Republicans either did not vote on the Rule or failed simply didn’t vote on the entire Foreign aid package

3. There are now five vacancies, Rep Tim Gallager (R-WI) has since resigned his seat in the House.