House faces dueling discharge petitions that would force a vote on foreign aid packages

House Democrats are desperate to pass a Senate-passed foreign funding package that would send monetary aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

House Republicans have resisted pressure to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, so House Dems have decided to try a rare -- and rarely successful -- maneuver to pass the bill called a "discharge petition."

CBS News reported that the the petition would need 218 votes to be able to bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and move forward with the vote on the aid package.

The discharge petition reportedly went live on Tuesday morning and successfully gathered dozens of signatures, but not yet enough to make a vote happen.

The situation is interesting, as Democrats currently have 213 members in the lower chamber. However, they'll still need a healthy amount of support from Republican House members as several progressive Democrats have signaled that they won't sign it because of Israel being included in the aid package.

⚡️URGENT: 36 Progressives/ Socialists appear to split with Democratic Party leadership and have not signed the discharge petition to permit a vote on Ukraine aid.

Why would any Democrat let alone a "Progressive" suppress a vote?

If progressives/ socialists believed in majority… pic.twitter.com/Jlvk6od26G

— Gregory O'Connor (@GregoryOnRoad) March 13, 2024

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California pleaded with House Dems and Republicans to come together and sign the petition to get the package to the House floor for a vote.

"What we're asking our colleagues — Democrats and Republicans — is to sign the discharge petition that will bring to the floor the Senate national security bipartisan supplemental. That is the fastest and easiest way to solve this issue," Aguilar said.

Notably, the situation became even more interesting when Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, introduced his own discharge petition for a related, but different bill that would send only military aid to those countries instead of both humanitarian and military aid.

CBS News reported:

Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who co-sponsored the Fitzpatrick bill, said Tuesday the Democrats' version is dead on arrival and predicted about 150 Republicans and 100 Democrats would support Fitzpatrick's. They could get to 218 signatures through the amendment process, he said.

As of this writing, neither petition had enough signatures to bypass the speaker. The Demcorat-led petition had more signatures than Fitzpatrick's.

Dozens of lawmakers from both sides took to social media to call on their colleagues to sign one of the petitions.

The situation has already turned politically nasty, with many paying close attention to which members signs which petition.

Only time will tell if either side is able to use the procedure to make a vote happen.