House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) is planning draft legislation for Ukraine aid. This met with little approval among Republicans.
Johnson will now try to pass five bills - one each for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific allies. Republicans are just two votes short of passing anything, as they have a narrow majority that will shrink to one vote following the resignation of Rep. Mike Gallagher (r-Wis.) this weekend. The House session will continue through Saturday, September 28, and the session is expected to last through September 30. The chamber will be adjourned on September 28, September 29, September 30, and October 1, 2013. The sessions will be held in Washington, D.C. and New York, respectively, for the week of September 28-October 1. The last session of the House was held on September 25-28, 2013, and the last session was on September 27-October 2, 2013. The session will resume on September 29-October 3, 2013 (the last day of the congressional session). It's unclear whether the fourth GOP bill will garner enough support to pass. Republicans from the conservative Main Street Caucus urged Johnson to punish members who block regular order and vote "no" on rules. Republicans in attendance also discussed whether the number of members required to invoke a measure to remove the speaker, a so-called "eviction motion," should be increased. Many Republicans privately worry that making it harder to remove the speaker could antagonize their conference and jeopardize the foreign aid bill. After backlash from Republicans and Democrats, Johnson announced on Thursday that he would not seek re-election as speaker. A verbal altercation erupted in the House of Representatives on Thursday morning when Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) got into a heated argument in which he aggressively urged members of the Freedom Caucus to introduce their measure to oust Johnson. A person who witnessed the altercation called Van Orden a "wimp," according to a person who saw the incident and a spokesman for Gaetz said.