The House approved $14.5 billion in military aid Thursday for Israel, a muscular U.S. response to the war with Hamas but also an approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden by requiring cuts in other areas.
Johnson said the Republican package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the terrorist Palestinian group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”
Democrats said that approach would only delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances in the Senate.
The first substantial legislative effort in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along with U.S. efforts to counter China and address security at the border with Mexico.
It is also Johnson’s first big test as House speaker as the Republican majority tries to get back to work after the month of turmoil since ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Johnson has said he will turn next to aid for Ukraine along with U.S. border security, preferring to address Biden’s requests separately as GOP lawmakers increasingly oppose aiding Kyiv.
The White House’s veto warning said Johnson’s approach “fails to meet the urgency of the moment” and would set a dangerous precedent by requiring emergency funds to come from cuts elsewhere.
While the amount for Israel in the House bill is similar to what Biden sought, the White House said the Republican plan’s failure to include humanitarian assistance for Gaza is a “grave mistake” as the crisis deepens.
Biden on Wednesday called for a pause in the war to allow for relief efforts.
“This bill would break with the normal, bipartisan approach to providing emergency national security assistance,” the White House wrote in its statement of administration policy on the legislation. It said the GOP stance “would have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”
It was unclear before voting Thursday how many Democrats would join with Republicans. The White House had been directly appealing to lawmakers, particularly calling Jewish Democrats, urging them to reject the bill.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and other senior White House staff have been engaging House Democrats, said a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
But the vote was difficult for some lawmakers who want to support Israel and may have trouble explaining the trade-off to constituents, especially as the large AIPAC lobby and other groups encouraged passage.
To pay for the bill, House Republicans have attached provisions that would cut billions from the IRS that Democrats approved last year and Biden signed into law as a way to go after tax cheats. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says doing that would end up costing the federal government a net $12 billion because of lost revenue from tax collections. Republicans scoffed at that assessment.
As the floor debate got underway, Democrats pleaded for Republicans to restore the humanitarian aid Biden requested and decried the politicization of typically widely bipartisan Israel support.
“Republicans are leveraging the excruciating pain of an international crisis to help rich people who cheat on their taxes and big corporations who regularly dodge their taxes,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York described hiding in a stairwell with his wife and children while visiting Israel as rockets fired in what he called the most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Nevertheless, Goldman said he opposed the Republican-led bill as “shameful effort” to turn the situation in Israel and the Jewish people into a political weapon.
“Support for Israel may be a political game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” the Democrat said. “But this is personal for us Jews and it is existential for the one Jewish nation in the world that is a safe haven from the rising tide of antisemitism around the globe.”
In other action Thursday, the House was scheduled to vote on a Republican-led resolution that focused on college campus activism over the Israel-Hamas war. The nonbinding resolution would condemn support of Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
The soldiers need to get paid. Did
U know the ukranian side casualty families( gold stars) get paid like 410k why dont fallen israeli soldiers get paid. Where is the funds for that ?
I think joe biden is paying ukranian soldiers death benefits
What kind of shtick is this republican house leader pulling? Why do Jews in Israel need to suffer more while he holds aid to Israel hostage so he can dismantle the IRS?
The IRS is the one US Agency that produces revenue? Why would Republicans cut it’s budget? Only tax evaders would benefit from the cut. So far I’m not impressed with the new speaker who should have introduced a bill with no attachments if he really wanted to aid Israel.
It’s so cool how politicians can create their own “dalet amos” of reality, and ignore everything else. The reason they want a combined bill is political — it forces Israeli sympathizers to support a Ukraine bill that they may believe is wrong, and a bill that the US has no business funding when a) they don’t have the funds, and b) the US sorely needs that cash right now for its own security. A separate funding bill for Israel is appropriate, not “political”, because that is the new problem in the world. Ukraine is old, tired, and pointless news, and there’s nothing happening that should push a funding bill for them (that will probably not help much, given the success they have had (NOT) with the 100s of billions they already got) to the front of the line.
And to say that we’re setting a bad precedent that will require being able to “afford” future emergency aid by knocking out other budget expenses is patently false. They can vote however they want on the next aid package, regardless of how this one goes down and regardless of what’s in the next package. It’s never tied to “precedent”.
But I wonder how Biden will justify a veto. If he wants aid for Palestinian innocents (which of course is an oxymoron, since these idiots voted for this government, and because it’s physically impossible to get aid into Gaza that won’t be “appropriated” by Hamas), that can be the next bill, why is there a need to make it one bill? But unfortunately he will spin it into another “dalet amos” of reality, and probably be successful at that.