Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday flipped her vote on advancing the Pentagon appropriations bill, citing Ukraine aid as the reason for her “no” vote.
Greene had voted “yes” on the rule for the Pentagon bill — which governs debate on a bill and lets the chamber proceed to a vote on the legislation — when it first came up Tuesday.
But the procedural vote failed and when Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brought it back up Thursday. Greene was one of five conservative Republicans to vote “no.”
“Our country is being invaded by the thousands every damn day and our Department of Defense does nothing,” Greene posted Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Our Defense bill should not fund our DOD for blood money for the Ukraine war, that’s why I’m a NO. What did we get out of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington, D.C., Thursday to meet with government leaders, including McCarthy and President Biden.
Greene has emerged as one of McCarthy’s strongest allies, but her and other GOP colleagues’ “no” votes on advancing the Pentagon bill dealt a blow to the Speaker and continued a week of turmoil for House Republicans. The chaos includes the failure of this bill and other struggles to advance a House GOP stopgap bill to fund the government to prevent an upcoming government shutdown. McCarthy expressed his open frustration Thursday in the wake of the failed vote.
“This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,” McCarthy told reporters.
Despite her “yes” vote on Tuesday, Greene has long been a critic of Ukraine aid.
“Currently, the top line spending number for the Defense appropriations bill is $826.45 billion,” Greene said on X last week. “The president asked for a top line number of $285.87 million less than our top line.
“The House bill includes $300 million for Ukraine, which I will not vote for. To cut spending and please the members that don’t want to vote for Ukraine, let’s take out the $300 M for Ukraine and pass this otherwise great bill,” Greene continued.
Earlier this year, she offered amendments to an annual defense policy bill to end assistance to Ukraine as it fends off an invasion from Russia.
McCarthy also denied a request by Zelensky to address Congress on Thursday. He said his denial was because there was no time for an address.
“Zelensky asked us for a joint session; we just didn’t have time,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to videos of the exchange.