The White House tucked a request to Congress to waive a notification requirement, which forces them to get permission before sending military aid to Israel, deep within its $105 billion aid package request.
The White House asked in its aid request for the ability to send Israel up to $3.5 billion in military articles to Israel without notifying Congress. House Republicans introduced a stand-alone budget package that would fund just Israel though it includes the waiver the White House asked for, according to In These Times. (RELATED: Biden Says It Would Be ‘Big Mistake’ For Israel To Occupy Gaza, Hamas Doesn’t Represent Palestinians)
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Josh Paul, former director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, told the outlet. “A proposal in a legislative request to Congress to waive Congressional notification entirely for FMF-funded Foreign Military Sales or Direct Commercial Contracts is unprecedented in my experience. … Frankly, [it’s] an insult to Congressional oversight prerogatives.”
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about his administration’s approach to artificial intelligence during an event in the East Room of the White House on October 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby confirmed Thursday that President Joe Biden would veto House Republicans’ stand-alone Israel funding bill that cuts funds from the Internal Revenue Service. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) previously said that the president would veto the House Republicans’ proposal, blasting the package for leaving out humanitarian aid to Gaza and funding for Ukraine. (RELATED: Biden Says It Would Be ‘Big Mistake’ For Israel To Occupy Gaza, Hamas Doesn’t Represent Palestinians)
Biden’s spending package allocates more than $61 million to Ukraine, $14.3 billion to Israel and $13.6 billion to the nation’s border crisis, with $1.4 billion of the funds going to state and local governments struggling to handle an influx of migrants.
The Biden administration is preparing to potentially compromise with House Republicans on border issues in exchange for more funding for Ukraine which is tucked in their package that funds Israel, according to Politico, which spoke to four people familiar with the discussions. White House and Department of Homeland Security officials have considered adding more asylum reform over the past few weeks to help House Republicans to get their package through, Politico reported.
“So this doesn’t actually reduce the time, it just reduces the oversight,” Paul told In These Times. “It removes that mechanism for Congress to actually understand what is being transferred at the time it is being transferred.” Paul noted that the language, which reportedly came from the White House, received “pushback” from within the executive branch.