McCarthy’s troubled speaker bid raises questions about Ukraine

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the House Armed Services Committee voted against advancing Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s bill to the House floor last year. It was the House Foreign Affairs Committee that voted against the bill.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed for the fourth time on Wednesday to secure enough votes to become speaker of the House, as his right-wing opponents wielded their opposition to U.S. aid for Ukraine as part of their justification for voting against him.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, nominated fellow Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., for speaker against McCarthy, arguing the House needs changes to the leadership and rules in order to increase congressional debate over the billions of dollars in aid that the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine.

The deadlock over speaker illustrates how difficult it could be for President Joe Biden to rely on Congress if he needs to provide Ukraine with additional military aid this year, even as the bipartisan majority of Republicans and Democrats support the assistance for Kyiv.

“We should be in here having this kind of a conversation with this many people in the room about Ukraine,” Roy said on the House floor while nominating Donalds.

Roy said Congress should debate the $45 billion in emergency Ukraine spending that lawmakers passed as part of the government funding bill last month — including $27.9 billion for the U.S. Defense Department to send Kyiv additional weapons and backfill U.S. stocks of weapons that Washington has already sent. The White House has said this supplemental spending package is intended to last through the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

“We should debate whether it should be more or less; we should debate whether it should be paid for; we should debate what the result [is] we should demand,” Roy said. “The only way you’re going to get that is if you change the rules and have the leadership to advance the rules to make sure that we can do that.”

Congress has passed four emergency Ukraine aid supplementals totaling more than $100 billion since Russia’s invasion in February, including $61.4 billion in military aid.

Both Roy and Donalds voted against the second Ukraine supplemental package totaling $40 billion in May, which the House ultimately passed 368-57. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who backs McCarthy but unwillingly received 20 votes to become speaker on Tuesday, also voted against the Ukraine aid bill.

Conversely, McCarthy sided with the majority of Republicans and voted for that Ukraine aid package.

But he went on to vow in October that a Republican House would not provide a “blank check” to Ukraine , only to walk back those comments in November a few days before election day as he instead advocated for more oversight of the aid.

Previous Ukraine aid supplementals already require the Pentagon and State Department inspectors general to oversee assistance to Kyiv. However, the supplementals stopped short of creating the special inspector general just for Ukraine that Republican leadership and conservative skeptics of Kyiv have demanded.

In the hopes of wooing over several conservative Freedom Caucus members opposed to his speaker bid, McCarthy made several concessions in December. This included a major rules change that would allow any five members to force a vote that could remove him as speaker, thereby empowering the furthest right-wing lawmakers in his caucus, among them vocal opponents of Ukraine aid.

Such a concession could prompt McCarthy or whoever else may become speaker to think twice before putting additional Ukraine aid on the floor for a vote.

Unsatisfied, the conservative Freedom Caucus members came forward with additional demands for rules changes earlier this week, resulting in a profanity-filled meeting as McCarthy and the majority of the Republicans rejected the extra ultimatums.

One of the most hardline Republican Ukraine aid skeptics, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has led the charge against McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker. Gaetz explicitly framed his opposition to McCarthy in terms of Ukraine aid after the California Republican failed three consecutive votes to become speaker.

Gaetz on Twitter said the House’s failure to organize made Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the “biggest loser” and U.S. taxpayers the “biggest winner.”

Zelenskyy visited Washington last month in his first trip to Ukraine since the war began to meet with Biden and address Congress shortly before Christmas, though the majority of House Republicans did not attend his speech. While Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. for its support, he said Ukraine will need more aid and expressed confidence there would be bipartisan support in Congress.

Some hardline Ukraine aid skeptics also support McCarthy, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga.

Gaetz and Taylor-Greene may be at odds over the speaker race, but they joined together in November to introduce legislation that would have required the Pentagon and State Department to hand over all documentation related to its support for Ukraine.

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted against advancing the bill on the chamber floor, but nothing precludes Republicans from advancing the legislation now that they hold the majority — regardless of who becomes speaker.

“I’m here as a member of the House Armed Services Committee to say that the days of endless cash and military materiel to Ukraine are numbered,” Gaetz said at a news conference with Taylor-Greene in November.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

更正：此前报道称，众议院军事委员会去年投票反对将众议员玛乔丽·泰勒-格林提出的法案提交众议院全体会议审议。事实上，投反对票的是众议院外交事务委员会。

华盛顿——加州共和党众议员凯文·麦卡锡周三第四次竞选众议院议长失败，未能获得足够的票数。他的右翼反对者以反对美国援助乌克兰为由，投票反对他。

德克萨斯州共和党众议员奇普·罗伊提名佛罗里达州共和党众议员拜伦·唐纳兹竞选议长，挑战麦卡锡。他认为，众议院需要改变领导层和规则，以便加强国会就美国向乌克兰提供的数十亿美元援助进行辩论。

围绕议长的僵局表明，如果乔·拜登总统今年需要向乌克兰提供额外的军事援助，即使共和党和民主党的大多数成员都支持向基辅提供援助，他依靠国会的可能性仍然很小。

罗伊在众议院提名唐纳德斯时说：“我们应该在这里，和这么多人一起讨论乌克兰问题。”

罗伊表示，国会应该就上个月作为政府拨款法案一部分通过的450亿美元乌克兰紧急援助资金进行辩论，其中包括279亿美元用于美国国防部向基辅运送更多武器，并补充华盛顿已经向乌克兰提供的武器库存。白宫表示，这项补充支出计划旨在持续到本财年结束，即9月30日。

罗伊说：“我们应该讨论是应该增加还是减少投入；我们应该讨论是否应该为此付费；我们应该讨论我们应该要求什么样的结果。而要实现这些目标，唯一的办法就是改变规则，并由领导者推动规则的完善，确保我们能够做到这一点。”

自俄罗斯2月份入侵乌克兰以来，国会已通过四项紧急乌克兰援助补充法案，总额超过1000亿美元，其中包括614亿美元的军事援助。

罗伊和唐纳德斯都投票反对5月份总额达400亿美元的第二轮乌克兰补充援助方案，该方案最终以368票赞成、57票反对获得众议院通过。支持麦卡锡的俄亥俄州共和党众议员吉姆·乔丹，虽然在周二不情愿地获得20票当选议长，但也投票反对了乌克兰援助法案。

相反，麦卡锡与大多数共和党人站在同一阵线，投票支持了那项乌克兰援助方案。

但他在 10 月份信誓旦旦地表示，共和党控制的众议院不会向乌克兰开“空白支票”，但在 11 月份大选前几天，他又收回了这些言论，转而主张对援助进行更多监督。

此前对乌克兰的援助补充法案已经要求五角大楼和国务院的监察长监督对基辅的援助。然而，这些补充法案并未像共和党领导层和对基辅持怀疑态度的保守派人士所要求的那样，设立专门负责乌克兰事务的特别监察长。

为了争取几位反对他竞选议长的保守派自由党团成员的支持，麦卡锡在12月做出了一些让步。其中包括一项重大规则修改，允许任何五名成员发起投票，罢免他的议长职务，从而赋予其党团中最右翼的议员更大的权力，其中包括一些公开反对援助乌克兰的议员。

这样的让步可能会促使麦卡锡或其他任何可能成为议长的人在将额外的乌克兰援助提交表决之前三思。

保守派自由党团成员对此并不满意，本周早些时候提出了更多修改规则的要求，导致会议充斥着脏话，因为麦卡锡和大多数共和党人拒绝了这些额外的最后通牒。

佛罗里达州共和党众议员马特·盖茨是共和党内对乌克兰援助持最强硬怀疑态度的议员之一，他带头反对麦卡锡竞选众议院议长。在加州共和党人麦卡锡连续三次竞选议长失败后，盖茨明确地将反对的焦点放在了乌克兰援助问题上。

盖茨在推特上表示，众议院的组织不力使乌克兰总统泽连斯基成为“最大的输家”，而美国纳税人则成为“最大的赢家”。

泽连斯基上个月访问华盛顿，这是自战争爆发以来他首次访问乌克兰，与拜登会晤并在圣诞节前夕向国会发表讲话，但大多数众议院共和党议员并未出席。泽连斯基感谢美国的支持，但他表示乌克兰仍需要更多援助，并相信国会两党会给予支持。

一些对乌克兰援助持强硬怀疑态度的人士也支持麦卡锡，其中包括佐治亚州共和党众议员玛乔丽·泰勒-格林。

盖茨和泰勒-格林可能在议长竞选上存在分歧，但他们在 11 月联合提出了一项立法，要求五角大楼和国务院交出所有与其支持乌克兰有关的文件。

众议院外交事务委员会的民主党人投票反对在众议院全体会议上推进该法案，但这并不妨碍共和党人现在掌握多数席位，无论谁成为议长，都可以推进该法案。

“我作为众议院军事委员会成员来到这里，要告诉大家，无休止地向乌克兰提供资金和军事物资的日子屈指可数了，”盖茨在11月与泰勒-格林举行的新闻发布会上说道。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。