House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called a vote on the $17.6 billion legislation, pitching it as a GOP counteroffer to a more sprawling Senate bill that also includes money for Ukraine, Taiwan and U.S. border security. Johnson declared earlier that the Senate measure would be “dead on arrival” should it reach the lower chamber, with many Republicans arguing 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 fell short in their bid to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, punctuated back-to-back losses for Johnson, and left uncertain the path ahead for funding President Biden’s national security priorities. The Senate bill, which faces a key vote Wednesday, also is expected to fail in its current form.
The stand-alone House bill included funds only for Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East — priorities, Johnson said earlier Tuesday, that must be “decoupled” from other national security initiatives.
Supporting Israel remains a priority for the Biden administration and many lawmakers of both political parties as the war in Gaza continues and U.S. troops in the region face escalating attacks from Iranian proxies.
While the vote failed, Republicans were able to use it as messaging leverage against Democrats, who bemoaned Republicans for passing an Israel funding bill three months ago that also included cuts to the IRS. Republicans claimed then that the spending cuts would offset funding for Israel, which Democrats considered a breach in precedent since supplemental bills to foreign allies often do not include such measures. Johnson dared House Democrats to vote against it, arguing he would put a clean funding bill on the floor so they could support it.
In the end, 46 Democrats voted for the bill Tuesday and 14 Republicans, all from the far right, voted against it.
But the GOP bill, proposed by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), was condemned by many Democrats — including staunch supporters of the Jewish state — who labeled it a “political stunt” that had “little to do with Israel’s right to self-defense — and everything to do with the chaos that has engulfed the Republican Party.”
Biden had said earlier that he would have vetoed it.
“We should reject this unserious effort,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, said on the House floor ahead of the vote. “The majority has opted to consider a bill that we know the President will veto. … This accomplishes nothing and delays aid getting out to our allies and providing humanitarian relief.”
Tuesday’s vote comes days after Senate leaders unveiled a $118 billion bill that includes funding for all of the administration’s national security priorities and a GOP wish list of immigration reforms. It is the product of months of bipartisan negotiations between a team of senators and the White House that began when Republicans said they would support additional Ukraine aid only if Democrats agreed to dramatic new immigration restrictions.
Support for the Senate bill, however, has swiftly fallen apart. Trump, Biden’s likely opponent in this year’s presidential election, has…
This article was originally published by a www.washingtonpost.com . Read the Original article here. .
