Johnson confronts most significant threat to his speakership to date as key decisions over Ukraine aid loom

Speaker Mike Johnson is facing down yet another pivotal week of his speakership: a threat over his ouster paired with a major decision on whether he will finally move ahead with aid to Ukraine that he’s been pledging to pursue for months.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing down yet another pivotal week of his speakership as he confronts both the threat of an ouster and mounting pressure to decide whether he will finally move ahead on aid to Ukraine, which he’s been pledging to pursue for months. Throughout the two-week Easter recess, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has kept up her attacks against Johnson as she continues to warn the speaker against pursuing any Ukraine aid package. But Johnson has also been working behind the scenes in an effort to thread the needle and find a package that could pass. The issue for Johnson remains that any aid to Ukraine will need a large number of Democratic votes. Creating legislation that could attract enough Democratic support to get Ukraine across the finish line and included funding for Israel could be difficult, especially in the wake of an Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen aid workers last week. Following the strike, more Democrats have signaled they are open to attaching conditions to aid for Israel, a dynamic that could complicate future efforts to approve Israel aid through Congress. For their part, GOP leaders are looking at potentially breaking the package into pieces, but getting that through the Senate could be yet another heavy lift. Johnson isn’t expected to move to pass Ukraine aid this week, instead focusing on passing a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but even that effort could be rife with party infighting and once again put the speaker at odds with members of his right flank. Congress will also confront a series of other major issues this week. House Republicans are gearing up to send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate and lawmakers are expected to face questions over how Congress will respond to rebuilding and recovery efforts following the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge.