McC and Greene
© Getty ImagesSpeaker of the House Kevin McCarthy • Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga)
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would strip all funding to train Ukrainian troops in their fight against Russia from the Pentagon funding bill just one day after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The GOP leader made the move in an effort to court votes after suffering two rare failures on a vote to advance the defense bill this week.

The $300 million for training Ukraine's troops will now be voted on separately.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., typically a McCarthy ally, posted on X after the second rule vote:
"I just voted NO to the rule for the Defense bill because they refused to take the war money for Ukraine out and put it in a separate bill"
The separate vote on Ukraine aid would likely pass and even attract Democratic votes, unlike the defense spending bill itself, which was loaded up with conservative policy riders. But this way anti-Ukraine aid lawmakers like Greene could vote for the defense bill and against the aid for training.

McCarthy and other top House leaders had a meeting with Zelensky at the Capitol on Thursday as the GOP leader refuses to commit to a supplemental funding package to aid Ukraine directly.

The White House has requested a $24 billion supplemental aid package, on top of the nearly $113 billion in aid the U.S. has directed toward the country. Though anti-Ukraine sentiment has grown among House Republicans, a majority in both chambers still supports [the war].

Meanwhile Congress is careening toward a government shutdown on October 1 - with the House having passed one of 12 separate spending bills to fund each agency of government.

Efforts to pass a continuing resolution (CR) or a bill with spending cuts that would fund the government an extra month to give more time to work out spending bills went up in flames in the House this week amid conservative opposition.

The House is expected to vote on a rule to begin debate on the defense, homeland, state and foreign operations and agriculture appropriations bills on Tuesday.

But with all the political wrangling it's taking to get Republicans on board to pass individual, party-line spending bills, the plan to push spending legislation through that could get the approval of the Senate and White House is even less clear.

It would likely take a CR to avoid a government shutdown - and a number of Republicans have said they would join up with Democrats to push through a CR if it was the only way to avoid a government shutdown.

McCarthy said Friday he still believes 'you shut down, you're in a weaker position' to negotiate and said he will again try to take up a CR that includes deep spending cuts and border security provisions.
"I just believe if you're not funding the troops, and you're not funding the border, it's pretty difficult to think that you're going to win in a shutdown. I've been through those a couple of times, and if members think by moving you into a shutdown that that's a positive idea, I don't think that's where the majority of our conference is."