House passes key foreign aid package

The TikTok office in Culver City, California, is pictured on March 13.

House lawmakers have once again passed legislation that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban, renewing a massive threat to the company’s US operations.

Here’s what we know, and how it could affect you:

Didn’t the House vote on something like this recently?

Yes. In March, House lawmakers approved a bill that would give TikTok roughly six months to sell or the app would be prohibited from US app stores and from “internet hosting services” that support it.

What makes this bill different?

Instead of a six-month deadline, TikTok would have roughly nine months, which could be extended by President Joe Biden by 90 days if he determines there’s been progress toward a sale. Also, the bill has now been inserted into a larger foreign aid package, which makes it much harder for lawmakers to oppose the measure.

Could the Senate vote on the foreign aid package without the TikTok language?

Senators could try to strip out the TikTok legislation, but policy analysts view it as unlikely, as quickly approving the foreign aid is a top congressional priority.

What does this mean for my use of the app?

If the Senate votes to approve the TikTok legislation, it heads to the desk of Biden, who endorsed the prior version of the bill and may quickly sign any foreign aid package that includes similar language targeting TikTok.

In theory, that would start the 270-day clock for TikTok to find a buyer. If it can’t separate from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, then users could be cut off. But that is still a big “if.”

The US Capitol is seen in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

The House on Saturday passed a key package that provides aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, while also addressing GOP legislative priorities, such as sanctions on Iran and a potential ban on TikTok.

Here’s what you need to know:

It’s a $95 billion package

The package could lead to a TikTok ban

How the House voted on each measure

What happens next

Speaker Johnson’s job is safe, for now

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, voiced strong condemnation of the US House’s approval of a $26 billion aid package for Israel, claiming the funding will directly correlate to the increasing number of Palestinian casualties, according to a statement published Saturday by WAFA, the official Palestinian agency.

Abu Rudeineh criticized the support, claiming it gives Israel the green light to broaden the war across the region and undermines the prospects for regional and global stability.

“US security aid [to Israel] constitutes a dangerous escalation and aggression against the Palestinian people,” Abu Rudeineh added.

Nineteen members of the House Progressive Caucus who voted against further aid to Israel said Saturday that “we make ourselves complicit in this tragedy” if Congress continues to supply military assistance amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, according to the Ministry of Health there.

The statement also called for a ceasefire in Gaza, more humanitarian aid to be delivered, and peace talks to begin.

“When faced with the question of whether to provide offensive aid to further this conflict, we believe there is a moral imperative to find another path,” the statement said.

These are the 19 progressive members who voted against the measure: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez of New York; Joaquin Castro, Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar of Texas; Pramila Jayapal of Washington; Ro Khanna, Mark Takano, Barbara Lee and Judy Chu of California; Becca Balint of Vermont; Jim McGovern of Massachusetts; Earl Blumenauer of Oregon; Hank Johnson of Georgia; André Carson of Indiana; Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey; Jesús García and Jonathan Jackson of Illinois; and Jill Tokuda of Hawaii.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to the media at the seventh gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, on March 19.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday celebrated the House’s passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.

Austin added that the package of bills will “save lives” and that the “world is watching” what the United States does.

Ukrainian servicemen told CNN the US House vote to approve military aid provides a much-needed shot in the arm.

An artillery reconnaissance commander who spent two years defending the town of Avdiivka before it fell to Russia in February had a similar message.

“When we feel support from the outside, it motivates us. After all, the military knows it cannot win with sticks and bows and arrows,” he told CNN. “For people who want to defeat the enemy, this news is a great morale booster.”

A foreign aid package passed by the US House of Representatives will “exacerbate global crises,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement to CNN on Saturday.

Zakharova said that in addition to the package’s “military aid to the Kyiv regime,” the bills would support Taiwan’s “interference in China’s internal affairs” and allow Israel to continue “a direct path toward escalating unprecedented aggravation in the region.”

Some context: Russia, which is aligned with China and Iran on the global stage, has long painted US aid to Ukraine as American interventionism and an attempt to assert Western influence in the region.

Ukraine has said aid from Washington is critical as it continues to fight back against the full-scale invasion Moscow launched into its territory in February 2022.

GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie railed on House Speaker Mike Johnson and his handling of the foreign aid bills, despite deciding not to move to oust the speaker Saturday.

Greene argued that more House Republicans will support their effort after going home over recess and speaking with their constituents.

Massie, a Kentucky Republican, added that they are giving Johnson the chance to resign, although the speaker has insisted he won’t. Massie added he believes a motion to vacate — a rarely used procedural tool to remove the House speaker — will happen eventually.

“I’m pretty sure one will come to the floor, if he doesn’t resign at some point, but we’re trying to avoid that,” he said. 

Greene insisted their effort to oust Johnson is gaining momentum, adding that the speaker is “a lame duck.” Rep. Paul Gosar Friday signed on to the effort Friday, becoming the third member to do so.

“If we had the vote today in our conference, he would not be speaker today. He’s already a lame duck, he can’t raise money, everyone knows it,” Greene claimed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson talks to the press after the House passed four foreign aid bills at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

Several swing-district House Republicans praised Speaker Mike Johnson for pushing forward with the foreign aid bills and attacked his detractors.

Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, a vulnerable New York freshman lawmaker, told CNN’s Manu Raju that after speaking with his constituents, “It is clear to me that there are moments in time where we must do the right thing, and today we did that.”

He defended Johnson for waiting for months to hold votes on aid for critical allies Israel and Ukraine, saying the speaker had to build bipartisan consensus in “a very complicated Congress.” Molinaro said he hoped Johnson’s detractors do not attempt to oust him, warning them that Congress is not “only supposed to do what they want.”

Rep. Jen Kiggans, a vulnerable Republican from Virginia, also praised the speaker.

Kiggans criticized the GOP hardliners who have pushed for Johnson’s ouster over the foreign aid package, saying, “It frustrates me when we have members of our conference who are isolationist; who don’t believe in standing with our allies.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took procedural steps Saturday for the Senate to begin voting on the House-passed foreign aid package Tuesday afternoon.

The chamber was supposed to be in recess next week, but it is coming back to pass this legislation.

Daniel Ingram protests outside the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

As members of Congress streamed out of the Capitol after passing an aid bill to Israel, a crowd of protesters with loudspeakers shouted, “Congress, Congress you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”

The bill also includes aid to Gaza, but the protesters represent the divisive nature of providing support to Israel amid the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

Marione Ingram protests outside the Capitol.

Marione Ingram, 88, and her husband, Daniel Ingram, 93, were among the protesters. Marione is a survivor of the Holocaust and large-scale bombing operations in Germany during World War II.  

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been resorting to ever-louder tactics – such as shutting down the Golden Gate Bridge during Monday’s morning commute – as they try to shake US support for Israel and draw attention to the crisis in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have died since the war began, according to the Ministry of Health there.

A number of lawmakers who backed the aid packages today said their views on House Speaker Mike Johnson as a leader changed after the speaker put bills on the floor despite a threat against his job. 

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said he thinks it was a transformative moment for Johnson as a leader, adding that the speaker’s stock in the conference has gone up even as he faces the threat of an ouster from a minority of members.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois was blunt when asked whether he had a new respect and view of the speaker than he did two weeks ago.

GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said he always thought Johnson would get there but a turning point came when the speaker was briefed that passing Ukraine aid by April was essential.

House Speaker Mike Johnson talks to the press after the House passed four foreign aid bills at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

Moments after the House passed four foreign aid bills totaling $95 billion, Speaker Mike Johnson said he had not spoken to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about potentially saving his job if his hardline colleagues move to oust him.

Walking toward his office, Johnson told reporters that he believes he will still be speaker in November and that he hasn’t spoken to any of his detractors Saturday.

Johnson said the “world is destabilized” and “a tinderbox,” stressing the importance of the bills’ passage in a “dangerous time.”

“Three of our primary adversaries, Russia, and Iran, and China, are working together and they’re being aggressors around the globe,” Johnson said. “They’re a global threat to our prosperity and our security. Their advance threatens the free world, and it demands American leadership. We turn our backs right now, the consequences could be devastating.” 

The White House on Saturday clinched urgent foreign aid after a monthslong saga that involved starts and stops in Congress and was momentarily upended by one of the most politically vulnerable issues for President Joe Biden: border security. 

The ask for additional aid to Ukraine, among other priorities, dates to October, when the White House put forward its national security supplemental funding request. Over the last several months, Biden has framed the need to provide additional funds to the war-torn country as a national security priority, warning that no ground should be ceded to Russia.

More recently, US officials attributed losses on the battlefield in Ukraine to the lack of additional assistance from the United States. In February, for example, the White House laid the blame for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka squarely at the feet of Republicans in Congress. 

Funding for Ukraine was also a recurring topic of discussion between Biden and global leaders as the US sought to reaffirm its leadership on the world stage — a theme echoed in the president’s statement Saturday. 

“Today, members of both parties in the House voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of American leadership on the world stage. At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently-needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure,” Biden said. 

TikTok criticized the House’s passage of a bill that could ban the app in the US.

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Thursday.

President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday that the House passage of foreign aid bills sends a “clear message” about America’s leadership to the globe. 

“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the US House for passing the Israel aid bill.

“The US Congress just overwhelmingly passed a much appreciated aid bill that demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel and defends Western civilization. Thank you friends, thank you America!” Netanyahu said on social media.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also thanked the House, saying he hopes the measure will pass in the US Senate soon “with strong bipartisan support.”

The House has adjourned after passing a foreign aid package that now heads to the Senate.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job is safe, for now, after Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she won’t move forward with her motion to vacate — a rarely used procedural tool to remove the House speaker — on Saturday. She said she wants her GOP colleagues to “go home and hear from their constituents.” 

The House is not expected back until April 29 after a one-week recess. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a press conference in Berlin on February 16.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that he is “grateful” for House lawmakers for passing the measure that provides aid to Ukraine, personally thanking Speaker Mike Johnson “for the decision that keeps history on the right track.”

“Just peace and security can only be attained through strength,” he added.

Watch Zelensky praise the US:

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Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly argued that House Democrats should not save Speaker Mike Johnson’s job, telling CNN that the only speaker he wants is Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. 

Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, noted that voting to save Johnson’s job would mean voting to save a speaker who they have major policy disagreements with, saying the Louisiana Republican’s record is “antithetical to every core value” Democrats hold.

However, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor of Virginia, expressed an openness to saving Johnson.