'The House has been sitting on a $91 billion package'
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00:00 House has been sitting on a $91 billion package that was sent by the Senate two months ago,
00:05 but now effectively that package has been slightly tweaked and dismantled into four
00:11 standalone aid bills, one for Ukraine, one for Israel, one for Taiwan and one for other
00:17 miscellaneous things such as TikTok and Iran sanctions and so on. So the breakdown of those
00:22 bills, $61 billion for Ukraine, that is money that Joe Biden has been trying to get for a long time
00:28 and should see Ukraine through at least until well after the presidential election here in the United
00:33 States come November, as well as $26 billion for Israel. That of course being the main thing that
00:38 has pushed Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, to get this forward onto the House floor because
00:43 of the weekend's attacks by Iran on Israel, and then $8 billion for Taiwan as well. The interesting
00:50 thing however though is these bills are missing the vital border components and that was what
00:55 most Republicans in the House directly behind me had balked at when that package came down
01:01 from the Senate just two months ago. So there's likely to be some more fractions there within the
01:07 House caucus who will not be happy about that, but Speaker Johnson is putting this forward now
01:15 to a vote on Saturday and the White House seemingly cautiously optimistic yesterday,
01:20 now Joe Biden out in full-throated support. He just released a statement saying,
01:25 "I strongly support this package to get critical aid to Israel and Ukraine, provide desperately
01:31 needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and also bolster security and stability in the
01:36 Indo-Pacific." He then continues, "The House must pass this package this week and the Senate
01:41 should quickly follow. I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world.
01:46 We stand with our friends and we won't let Iran or Russia succeed." So Joe Biden likely
01:52 hopeful that this can pass the House. We'll see how that does on Saturday.