House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is demanding to meet with President Joe Biden for a one-on-one, in-person discussion over the Ukraine and Israel foreign aid bill that is now before the House, placing the president in the hot seat if he wants to see the bill on his desk.

A source close to Johnson told NBC News that Johnson and his staff have repeatedly asked for meetings over the last two months after the speaker’s trip to the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas. However, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said on Tuesday that Biden “refuses” to meet with Johnson.

“Ultimately, the two of them could come to an agreement that can become law,” Scalise said. “And yet the president refuses to even meet. So, the president can’t say he’s serious about Ukraine or the border when he refuses to meet with the speaker so they can come to an agreement on this issue.”

Now that Johnson is asking for a meeting with Biden on the foreign aid bill, it places the ball in the president’s court to see whether he is willing to debate or make concessions on foreign spending.

The Senate passed the defense spending bill early Tuesday morning, which includes $60 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine, and $4.8 billion to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. 

The House will now take up the supplemental funding bill, but Republicans have expressed their disapproval. GOP lawmakers are pushing back against House Democrats who are calling for Johnson to schedule a vote on the defense spending bill. 

There’s already a shell discharge petition signed by every Democratic lawmaker, so only a few Republicans would need to sign on to the measure for it to succeed. If the majority threshold of 218 signatures is met, the bill would then be brought to the floor for a vote.

Johnson dismissed the bill on Tuesday, telling reporters he would “certainly oppose it.”

“[I] hope it would not be considered,” he said. “The House has to work its will on this.”

Biden met with congressional leaders last month to discuss the bipartisan immigration deal, which Johnson called a “productive” meeting at the time. However, a bipartisan agreement that Senate Democratic and Republican leaders and the White House spent months working on to combine Ukraine aid and border security failed in the Senate last week.

Johnson said in a statement on Monday ahead of the defense spending bill that the Senate “should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe. Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates called on House Republicans to pass the Senate’s bill in a statement on Tuesday.

“Will House Republicans side with President Biden and senators on both sides of the aisle in supporting American national security? Or will House Republicans, in the name of politics, side with Vladimir Putin and the regime in Tehran?” Bates said. “The House GOP cannot lose sight of this binary choice. It would be devastating to undercut American national security by voting against our interests and values.”