Screenshot / YouTube, POLITICO, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-LA), has said that the House of Representatives will likely act in the next few weeks to grant funding to Ukraine, saying that he intends to lead the charge for a very different kind of aid, and suggesting that future funding may come with stipulations. 

“When we return after this period, we'll be moving a product. But it's going to, I think, have some important innovations,” Johnson told Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.”

Lawmakers are currently away from the nation’s capital, in the second week of a two-week break for both the House and Senate, where they are working in their own districts. The House will return on Tuesday, April 9.

Johnson said he has been “working to build consensus” on a supplemental national security and foreign aid package, suggesting that the package will likely look different from previous attempts, and saying the House will “be moving it right after the district work period.”

This comes months after Republicans killed a $118 billion package with aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel and the U.S. border earlier this year. Republicans had fought hard to tackle the ongoing border crisis, and the package did not go far enough to combat the issue. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Joe Biden have been pressuring Johnson to take up a slimmer $95 billion package without border measures, but have thus far been unsuccessful

“We've been trying to use that as the only leverage we have to force change on the border. We're still trying to force the president to use his executive authority, and most of the American people know that he has that authority. He's not using it,” Johnson argued.

Johnson added that in future aid to Ukraine, “There’s a lot of things that we should do that make more sense and I think we’ll have consensus around.”

Johnson highlighted three specific ways to better provide aid, including the REPO Act introduced in the House last year by Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) which would liquidate seized Russian assets and send that as assistance to Ukraine. 

Additionally, there is former President Trump’s idea of aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan, not mentioning specific terms of that potential loan.

“Even President Trump has talked about the loan concept where we set up – we're not just giving foreign aid – we're setting up a relationship where they can provide it back to us when the time is right,” Johnson said.

It has been suggested that Trump would be willing to back such a loan being forgivable and interest-free, should he be reelected president later this year. 

“And then, you know, we want to unleash American energy. We want to have natural gas exports that will help unfund Vladimir Putin’s war effort there,” Johnson said of the third proposal.

Biden is facing bipartisan pushback after his administration paused exports of liquefied natural gas. Critics have accused him of giving Russia greater control over the market, and giving them more money to fund the invasion.

“On one hand, he says he supports Ukraine, but on the other, he is helping fund Putin's war efforts by putting billions of dollars of money in the pocket of Vladimir Putin by allowing him to sell his energy on world markets, by shutting off American energy,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), adding that Biden is “sending very mixed messages to Ukraine” with his policies.