Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson has said he expects to move a package that includes aid for Ukraine when the House returns from recess. He said this in an interview with Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy, The Hill reports.
Johnson added that the package would include "some important innovations".
According to him, he has been working on the package "throughout the current period", communicating with all members of the House.
"We're putting this product together and we're going to launch it right after the district period," Johnson said.
"Look, what we have to do in an era of divided government – historically, as we are – you got to build consensus. If we want to move a partisan measure, I got to have every single member, literally. And some things need to be bipartisan," he added.
Johnson floated as examples the possibilities of extending a loan to Ukraine – an idea that gained some traction in early March. That might assuage conservative concerns about providing more aid as Ukraine fights against Russian aggression.
The House spokesman also mentioned the REPO for Ukrainians Act, which would authorise the president to seize Russian sovereign assets frozen in the U.S. and give them to Ukraine to use against Russia.
"The REPO Act, you know, if we can use the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to allow the Ukrainians to fight them, that’s just pure poetry. Even President Trump has talked about the loan concept, where … we’re not just giving foreign aid. We’re setting it up in a relationship where they can provide it back to us when the time is right," Johnson said.