The House of Representatives defeated a bill on Tuesday to send $17 billion worth of aid to Israel without cuts to offset its cost.
The House passed a bill on Nov. 2 to send $14.3 billion in aid to Israel offset by cuts to the Internal Revenue Service, but the measure was rejected by the Democratic-led Senate. The House defeated another bill attempting to approve such aid, without cuts, by a vote of 250 yeas to 180 nays, earning a majority but failing to meet the two-thirds requirement to pass the bill under a suspension of the rules. (RELATED: House Passes Israel Aid Bill Funded By IRS Cuts)
The bill would spend approximately $5 billion on aid to replace Israel’s several missile defense systems — known as the Iron Dome, Iron Beam and David’s Sling — against rocket attacks from Gaza as well as other regions in the Levant and wider Middle East, such as Iran. Additionally, $3.5 billion would be spent on aiding Israel’s procurement of miscellaneous defense equipment through the U.S. Foreign Military Financing Program, which provides allied countries with taxpayer-funded grants for the express purpose of buying U.S.-made defense equipment.
Summary of the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd
The Biden administration has exercised unilateral authority under the Arms Export Control Act to provide some aid to Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, such as tank shells. The bill would appropriate $4.4 billion be used to replenish U.S. stocks of equipment that have constituted such aid. (RELATED: Biden Administration Approves Sale Of Tank Shells To Israel)
Despite bipartisan support for the bill, some conservative House Republicans in the Freedom Caucus had misgivings about the bill’s fiscal consequences due to the absence of financial offsets.
“I cannot send $17.6 [billion] to Israel [without] paying for it given we are bleeding $2 Trillion a year,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the Freedom Caucus’ policy chairman, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
It’s not every day that you see the House Freedom Caucus and @JoeBiden on the same side of an issue. For very different reasons, they’re both opposed to the House’s new bill to aid Israel. https://t.co/Qa6kg7dbzZ
— Arjun Singh (@arjunswritings) February 6, 2024
The caucus issued a statement on Sunday opposing the bill.
“When our nation is running $200 billion monthly deficits and $34 trillion in national debt, America should not, and does not have to, borrow to support Israel,” it wrote. “Congress can pay for Israel aid by cutting funding for the United Nations, repealing the IRS expansion, rescinding the Department of Commerce ‘slush fund’, or ending leftist climate change tax credits.”
The caucus also accused House Speaker Mike Johnson of allegedly “surrendering” to Democratic demands for aid without cost offsets and “reversing course” on previous demands that the bill be fully funded, according to the statement.
The bill was also opposed by President Joe Biden, who has demanded that Congress instead pass the Senate’s omnibus security bill, which would authorize not only aid to Israel but also aid to Ukraine during its conflict against Russia, as well as new border security and immigration measures.
“Instead of working in good faith to address the most pressing national security challenges, this bill is another cynical political maneuver,” wrote the Biden administration in a statement indicating that the president would veto the bill. “The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game.”
The Israeli Mission to the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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