House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called for a vote on the $17.6 billion legislation, viewing it as a GOP counteroffer to a more expansive Senate bill that also includes money for Ukraine, Taiwan and US border security. Johnson previously announced that the Senate measure would be “dead on arrival” if it reached the House, where many Republicans believe it does not go far enough to address illegal immigration after former President Donald Trump urged them to oppose it.
Tuesday's vote, minutes after House Republicans also failed in their attempt to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, was punctuated by back-to-back losses for Johnson, leaving the path uncertain for funding President Biden's national security priorities. The Senate bill, which faces a key vote on Wednesday, is also expected to fail in its current form.
The House's standalone bill includes money only for Israel and US forces in the Middle East — priorities, Johnson said earlier Tuesday, that should be “separated” from other national security initiatives.
Supporting Israel remains a priority for the Biden administration and many Political legislators alike Parties: As the war in Gaza continues and American forces in the region face escalating attacks from Iranian proxies.
But the GOP bill, proposed by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), was condemned by many Democrats — including staunch supporters of the Jewish state — who called it a “political stunt” that has “little to do with Israel’s right to establish a Jewish state.” Self-defense – and everything to do with the chaos that has engulfed the Republican Party.”
Biden had previously said that he would veto the resolution.
“We must reject this half-hearted effort,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Connecticut), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said on the House floor before the vote. “The majority has chosen to consider a bill that we know the president will veto. … This accomplishes nothing and delays aid reaching our allies and providing humanitarian relief.”
Tuesday's vote comes days after Senate leaders unveiled a $118 billion bill It includes funding for all of the administration's national security priorities and the GOP's wish list of immigration reforms. It is the product of months of bipartisan negotiations between a team of senators and the White House, which began when Republicans said they would support additional aid only for Ukraine. If Democrats agree to dramatic new restrictions on immigration.
However, support for the Senate bill declined quickly separate. Trump, Biden's potential opponent in this year's presidential election, has mischaracterized the legislation and encouraged other Republicans not to support it even before the text of the bill was released last weekend.
Calvert, the bill's House sponsor, said his proposal was a “clean bill” free of less popular national security provisions. “Assertions that this bill plays a political role are patently false,” he said on the House floor shortly before the vote. “We have an opportunity today to come together and send a strong message: The United States stands with Israel,” he said. “The only people who make it political are those who oppose it.”
Johnson, speaking at a press conference earlier in the day, suggested that after “taking care of Israel,” lawmakers would “deal with” other issues. “We have to deal with these actions independently and separately. I think they deserve that.”
He said the negotiated Senate proposal did not include “real border security reform,” and “that is why it is not successful. They did not meet the requirements and needs of the country.”
Support for Israel remained strong on Capitol Hill despite growing anxiety among progressive Democratic voters as the death toll in Gaza surpassed 27,000 people — most of them women and children, according to local health officials — and Israel impeded Palestinian access to food, water and medicine. .
The bill, dedicated only to Israel, represents the second Republican attempt in three months to separate aid to America's closest ally in the Middle East from aid to Biden. Request larger supplementary financing.
Some of Israel's loudest Democratic supporters, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), have indicated that they will vote for the bill despite their support for the larger national security package because, as Moskowitz explained in an interview, Congress has proven “chaotic” and ” It's so unpredictable that you can't rely on much else. “I think there's a plausible scenario that if this dies, everything dies,” he said earlier in the day, referring to money needed for aid to Ukraine and border security.
Before the vote, dozens of lawmakers, including Democratic leaders and members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, said they would reject the bill.
“We stand ready to support any serious bipartisan effort regarding the special relationship between the United States and Israel,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (N.Y.). California) in a “Dear Colleague” note on Tuesday before the vote.
But they said the stand-alone legislation “is not being introduced in good faith.” “It is rather a clear and cynical attempt by MAGA extremists to undermine the possibility of a comprehensive, bipartisan funding package that addresses America’s national security challenges in the Middle East, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region, and around the world.”
It is unclear how lawmakers will act.
National security experts and Ukraine advocates on Capitol Hill have warned for months that new military aid for Kiev may be the most important priority contained in the emergency spending package Biden proposed months ago. It is also the most vulnerable, as more Republican lawmakers cite skeptical voters for their fading desire to help the beleaguered former Soviet republic. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Tuesday night that passing aid to Israel on his own would have led to “pressure on House Republicans to move forward with a funding vote.” “. For Ukraine.”
Lawmakers from both parties have also long complained about the situation in America The immigration system, where the Senate-brokered deal represents one of the most important bipartisan reform efforts in decades.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Republican conference had concluded that “there's no real opportunity here” to turn a larger national security bill with a negotiated border deal into law, given Johnson's opposition. .
In a stunning reversal, McConnell and several other Senate Republicans — who weeks ago said they would not approve aid to Ukraine and other national security funding without a border deal — instead suggested they might initiate a bill to aid Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan but which has now been ruled out. Boundary provisions. Several other Republicans, including Senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and Todd Young (Indiana), have also expressed their support for the idea.
McConnell said it was up to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.N.Y.) to decide how to “rewrite” the Senate bill after an expected vote on it failed on Wednesday.
Schumer did not directly rule out the proposal, but he said Democrats are angry and frustrated with Republicans' change of position on the deal that the GOP explicitly requested. Johnson also initially opposed the idea of moving ahead with funding for Ukraine without major reforms to border policy.
“They don’t have the backbone, the courage, the backbone to resist Trump’s sycophancy, even when they know he’s wrong,” Schumer said at a press conference on Tuesday.
revision
An earlier version of this article misstated the totality of the Senate's proposal to fund various national security initiatives. Its value is 118 billion dollars. The article has been corrected.
