The showdown meeting today at the White House between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly achieved a path forward on averting a partial government shutdown on March 1, but made no progress on the matter of providing $60 billion more military aid to Ukraine. Johnson told reporters: “We will get the government funded.”
The White House statement said that Biden had “discussed how Ukraine has lost ground on the battlefield in recent weeks and is being forced to ration ammunition and supplies due to congressional inaction.” Sen. Chuck Schumer said they tried to get Johnson to agree on funding a continuation of Ukraine’s war, that it was one of the most “intense” meetings he’d ever been in, but there was no agreement. Schumer said: “It’s in his hands. We told him how important it was. It was passionate.”
