© Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shake hands across the table during a meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S. September 21, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/file photo

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden is pushing Republican lawmakers to back what the White House says is a critically needed funding bill for Ukraine’s war against Russia that is opposed by former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s opposition to the Senate-approved $95.34 billion military aid package for Ukraine and Israel means that it may never be voted on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The bill will fund U.S. troops in the Middle East, forces protecting commerce in the Red Sea, humanitarian aid in Gaza, and defense companies and submarine manufacturing in the United States, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House on Wednesday in a rare press conference.

He laid responsibility for the bill’s future entirely on House Speaker Mike Johnson. “If that vote comes to the floor… it will pass on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, just as it did in the Senate,” Sullivan said.

Johnson indicated again on Wednesday he has no immediate plans to allow the chamber to vote on the package, saying “we’re not going to be forced into action by the Senate.”

He would like an in-person, one-on-one meeting with Biden over the bill, NBC News reported.

The U.S. has received reports of Ukrainian troops on the front line already rationing ammunition, Sullivan said. “Each passing day, each passing week the cost of inaction from the United States… is rising,” Sullivan said.

The White House is sending Biden surrogates in coming days to states that benefit from the funding for American defense companies to make the case that the U.S. economy stands to gain if the package is approved, and a flurry of top U.S. officials lobbied for the bill on Wednesday.

Biden national security spokesperson John Kirby (NYSE:) and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for the bill on Wednesday. Current and former national security aides will participate, a senior administration official said.

Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to make the case for the legislation while on a trip to the Munich Security Conference this week.

After the Senate passed the bill early on Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers promptly began urging Johnson to bring it up for a vote in the chamber, which his party narrowly controls. Both houses of Congress must approve the legislation before Biden can sign it into law.

The United States and its allies are worried about how long Ukraine can hold off the Russians if the funding is not approved soon.

Biden, in remarks on Tuesday, said that while the weaponry would help Ukraine, the money would be spent in the United States “in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, where artillery shells are made.”

The package, which also includes security funding for Israel and Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Palestinians, has faced opposition from Republican hardliners, particularly those most closely aligned with Trump, who is widely expected to be the party’s nominee to face Biden in November.

Biden argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin stands to gain if the money is not approved.

“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin, opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” he said.