Speaker Johnson announces standalone Israel aid bill to counteract Senate border package
Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA) announced on the weekend that when Congress returns to Washington next Monday it will vote on a package of legislation providing aid to Israel with no cuts to spending.
Johnson, in a letter to legislators sent on Saturday, announced that the bill text will be released this weekend and a vote is scheduled for the next few days. The Senate is preparing to release a long-awaited package of supplemental aid that will implement stricter border security policies in exchange for financial assistance for Ukraine and Israel.
Johnson, who has already declared the House framework to be “dead-on-arrival”, is likely to block its passage. Johnson will instead push for the passage a $17 billion package of aid to Israel to preempt Senate’s bipartisan agreement.
Johnson wrote that “while the Senate seems poised to release their text of their supplemental bill after months of negotiations behind closed doors, their leadership knows that by not including the House in negotiations, they’ve eliminated the ability to quickly consider any legislation.” As I have been saying for the past three months, it is the House’s responsibility to address these issues.
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Johnson had previously called for border legislation to be kept separate from supplemental funding packages.
The aid package was passed months after the House approved a $14.3-billion aid package for Israel, which included cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. Senate Democrats criticized the policy rider as “poison pills.” Johnson said that the latest package proposed would not include additional cuts. He criticized Democrats for refusing to consider the offset for Israel, even though they had agreed to additional IRS cuts to pay for domestic priorities.
He wrote: “During the debate in the House, and in many subsequent statements, Democrats made it clear that their main objection to the House bill’s offsets was its offsets.” The Senate will not have any excuses, no matter how misguided they may be, to delay the swift passage of critical support for our ally.
According to Johnson, the legislation will be presented by Rep. Ken Calvert. It’s not clear if the Democratic-led Senate will take up the bill, as they are pushing for its bipartisan framework. The legislative text will be released on Sunday.
The White House had previously promised to veto any aid bill for Israel that was not accompanied by a full request for supplementary funding.
John Kirby said that the president would veto a bill that only included Israel. “I believe that we have made that clear.”
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