Exclusive – Byron Donalds: 'Incredibly Disappointing' Johnson Violated Hastert Rule on Passage of Ukraine Aid
Jason Andrew/The New York Times via AP, Pool
WASHINGTON, DC–Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Chip Roy (R-TX) slammed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for violating the Hastert Rule after the $60 billion Ukraine aid bill passed on Saturday without a majority of Republican support.
The longstanding rule directs that a Republican speaker will only put legislation up for a floor vote if a majority of the GOP conference supports it. The rule is meant to prevent a GOP speaker from colluding with Democrats to pass bills. But most of the GOP did not back the Ukraine bill.
While 101 Republicans and 210 Democrats voted for it, 112 Republicans voted against advancing it to the Senate, meaning Johnson has once again broken the Hastert Rule weeks after passing a $1.2 trillion government funding plan that most of his conference rejected.
During a brief exclusive conversation with Breitbart News after the passage of Johnson’s foreign aid package Saturday, Donalds said Johnson’s breaking of the rule is “incredibly disappointing.”
“It shouldn’t even be this way because there was a time and opportunity to put different packages together, and that time wasn’t taken,” Donalds said. “We got to do better and get this thing back together.”
Moments later, Breitbart News also asked Roy for his thoughts on the violation in a press gaggle on the Capitol steps.
“Well, I mean, if that’s true—I’m taking you all at the word that that’s true—then that’s a massive problem,” Roy said. “And it was fairly predictable, although I knew it was going to be close. And it's like the omni[bus] a few weeks ago; it’s just not the right direction.”
The Republican vote breakdown on the Ukraine supplemental was identical to the omnibus vote in March, where 112 Republicans voted against it and 101 voted for it.
In the lead-up to that vote, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced her motion to vacate against Johnson, which is not privileged. Greene, who has growing support for her motion, can make the motion privileged at any time and force a vote within two days.
Now that the Ukraine aid bill passed, along with supplementals for Taiwan, Israel, and the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, they will be bundled in a single package that will advance to the Senate. President Joe Biden has called on the Democrat-controlled Senate to quickly pass the package and said he would sign it “into law immediately” if it makes it to his desk.
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