Lawmakers advanced a Republican-crafted stand-alone Israel aid package Thursday, but the Democrat-led Senate and White House have warned that the bill is dead on arrival.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters ahead of the debate and vote on supplemental aid to Israel, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.
House Democrats by and large rejected the bill because they believed that funding the bill by clawing back money for new IRS agentswas making aid to Israel conditional. The White House, congressional Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, all oppose separating Israel aid from Ukraine aid, arguing that Mr. Biden’s umbrella proposal is the best path forward to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
“Instead we will work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes funding for aid to Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid including for Gaza, and competition with the Chinese Government,” Mr. Schumer wrote.“The president would veto an only-Israel bill, I think that we’ve made that clear,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a White House briefing.
However, the Congressional Budget Office said that the reshuffling of money would add over $12 billion to the deficit over the next decade because shifting the money could cause up to $26 billion to be lost in revenue for the agency.“The CBO is making the assessment that the IRS is going to squeeze more money out of our hard-working constituents. I mean, I don’t find that to be a good response,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York Republican.
But a growing consensus among House Republicans is that Congress should not greenlight any more funding for the war-beleaguered country until Mr. Biden provides a clear strategy on U.S. involvement in the region and how Ukraine will win the war against Russia.
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