WASHINGTON, April 17 - President Joe Biden said Wednesday he strongly supports a proposal from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending crucial bipartisan support to the effort this week to approve $95 billion in funding for the U.S. allies.

Ahead of potential weekend voting, Johnson was facing a choice between potentially losing his job and funding Ukraine. He notified lawmakers earlier Wednesday that he would forge ahead despite growing anger from his right flank. Shortly after Johnson released the funding proposals, Democrat Biden offered his emphatic support for the package.

“The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,” Biden said. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”

After agonizing for days over how to proceed on the package, Johnson notified GOP lawmakers Wednesday that he would push to hold votes on three funding packages — to provide about $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion to allies in the Indo-Pacific — as well as several other foreign policy proposals in a fourth bill. The plan roughly matches the amounts that the Senate has already approved.

“A strong America is good for the entire world,” Johnson told reporters. He asserted he had taken the Senate bill and “improved the process and policy.”

Johnson emphasized that the bulk of the funding for Ukraine would go to purchasing weapons and ammunitions from U.S. defense manufacturers. The legislation proposes that $9 billion of economic assistance for Kyiv be structured as forgivable loans, along with greater oversight on military funding, but the decision to support Ukraine at all has angered populist conservatives in the House and given new energy to a threat to remove him from the speaker’s office.

The votes on the package are expected Saturday evening, Johnson said. But he faces a treacherous path to get there.

Johnson’s push to pass the foreign aid comes amid growing alarm in Washington at the precarious situation in Ukraine. Johnson, delaying an excruciating process, had waited for over two months to bring up the measure since the Senate passed it in February.

In the House Intelligence Committee, the Republican chairman, Rep. Mike Turner, and top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes, issued a joint statement Tuesday saying, “The United States must stand against Putin’s war of aggression now as Ukraine’s situation on the ground is critical.”

In a separate hearing on Wednesday, Pentagon leaders testified that Ukraine and Israel both desperately need military weapons.

“We’re already seeing things on the battlefield begin to shift a bit in Russia’s favor,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The House’s version of the aid bill pushes the Biden administration to provide long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to Ukraine, which could be used to target Russian supply lines.

The U.S. has resisted sending those weapons out of concerns Moscow would consider them escalatory, since they could reach deeper into Russia and Russian-held territory. The House legislation would also allow the president to decline to send the ATACMS if it is against national security interests, but Congress would have to be notified. (ap/ez)