Mike Johnson Faces Rebellion From America's Largest Lobbying Group

America's largest lobbying group has thrown its weight behind a bipartisan bill that would reimagine the nation's immigration laws while providing aid to Israel and Ukraine in a broadside to conservative House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents and advocates for businesses, said on Monday that it was "pleased to see desperately needed border security, asylum, and immigration reforms included in the emergency supplemental funding proposal before the U.S. Senate."

In a statement, executive vice president and chief policy officer for the group, Neil Bradley, wrote: "The economic disruption and human suffering wrought by our border crisis have become so severe that Congress cannot afford to ignore these problems any longer.

"We look forward to working with Members of Congress to pass these commonsense measures that will improve America's security by addressing our southern border and supporting Ukraine and Israel."

It comes after Johnson said that the border deal would be "dead on arrival" in a January 26 letter to GOP colleagues.

After the bill was released by a bipartisan group of senators who had been drafting the agreement, the Republican House Speaker said it was "even worse than we expected, and won't come close to ending the border catastrophe the president has created."

Newsweek reached out to Johnson's office via email for comment on Monday.

It is unclear how many House Republicans would side with Johnson over the deal, though some have already come out against it. However, they are facing criticism from members of the Republican delegation who helped put it together.

"Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, we're not going to give you money for this, we want a change in law," James Lankford, a GOP senator for Oklahoma, told Fox News on January 28.

"A few months later, when we're finally getting to the end, they're like, 'oh, just kidding, I actually don't want a change in law because of the presidential election year.'"

Asked whether Johnson was acting at the behest of former President Donald Trump—who has urged Republicans in Congress against accepting anything less than a "perfect" border deal before the general election in November—Johnson told NBC on Sunday that the 2024 GOP frontrunner was "not calling the shots."

The bill has also faced early criticism from some Senate Republicans and Democrats.

The package would provide a total of $118 billion in appropriations, $20 billion of which would go to immigration enforcement, including hiring more officers and border patrol agents.

These would assist with its other aims, such as tougher and faster processes for evaluating asylum seeker claims. Final decisions would be targeted to be made within months of arrival in the U.S., rather than years.

Also included in the bill is around $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine against Russia's ongoing invasion; $14 billion for Israel as it continues its war with Hamas; and humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the conflict in Gaza. It would also give nearly $5 billion to allies in the Indo-Pacific region to deter Chinese aggression.

Update 2/5/24, 11:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include further information.