Greene, the top Trump ally, filed a motion to vacate the Speaker from office in a snap vote, much the way Republicans ousted their former Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last autumn.

Once the motion is introduced, a representative can walk onto the House floor and request a vote. Such a request would force House leaders to schedule a vote on the resolution within two legislative days.

There are procedural motions that members of either party could introduce to slow down or stop the process altogether. But if those tactics were to fail, and the resolution came to the floor for a vote, it would take a simple majority of the House to remove the Speaker, as happened to McCarthy in a 216-210 vote.

Other Republican lawmakers have openly complained about Johnson’s leadership.

While Greene has not said if or when she will force the issue – and has not found much support for her plan after last year’s turmoil over McCarthy’s exit – she drew at least one key backer Tuesday.

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Representative Thomas Massie rose in the meeting and suggested Johnson should step aside, pointing to the example of John Boehner, an even earlier House speaker who announced an early resignation in 2015 rather than risk a vote to oust him, according to Republicans in the room.

“Speaker Johnson must announce a resignation date and allow Republicans to elect a new Speaker to put America first and pass a Republican agenda,” Greene wrote on social media, thanking Massie for his support for her motion to vacate.

In an effort to satisfy conservatives, Johnson said he would hold a separate vote on a border security package that contains most of a bill that was already passed by House Republicans last year. That bill has already been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and conservatives quickly denounced the plan to hold a separate vote on it as insufficient.

The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus posted on X that Johnson was “surrendering the last opportunity we have to combat the border crisis.”

Shortly after Johnson released the funding proposals to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, President Joe Biden said he strongly supported the proposal this week.

“The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,” the president 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.”

Johnson is proposing that 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 top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro, said in a statement that the three funding proposals “mirror” a $US95 billion foreign aid package the Senate passed in February.

Crucial to Democratic support, the House proposal kept intact roughly $US9 billion ($14 billion) in humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other conflict zones. Progressive Democrats are also opposed to providing Israel with funding that could be used for its campaign in Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians.

At the same time, the Speaker’s office was tidying up after Johnson said on Fox News that he and Trump were “100 per cent united” on the big agenda items, when in fact the Republican presidential nominee, who had just hosted the House leader in a show of support, opposes much overseas aid as well as a separate national security surveillance bill.

As part of the foreign aid push, Johnson said House members would have an opportunity to vote on a raft of foreign policy proposals, including allowing the US to seize frozen Russian central bank assets; placing sanctions on Iran, Russia and China; and potentially banning the video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake.

The effort to pass the foreign aid comes amid growing alarm 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.

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In the House Intelligence Committee, the Republican chairman Mike Turner and top Democrat Jim Himes issued a joint statement Tuesday saying they had been informed in a classified briefing that there was a “critical need” to provide funding for Ukraine this week.

“The United States must stand against Putin’s war of aggression now, as Ukraine’s situation on the ground is critical,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

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 favour,” said Defence 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 US has resisted sending those weapons out of concern Moscow would see it as an escalation, 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.

The House bill would also redouble the oversight of aid and equipment sent to Kyiv, including in-person monitoring requirements.