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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louis.) said in a letter to the Republican conference on Saturday that the House would provide $17.6 billion to strengthen Israel’s military defense system and U.S. military personnel and civilians in areas of ongoing conflict. He announced that he would send dollars. If passed by the House by mid-week, the bill would be the second to be sent to the Senate in the past two months. But unlike the previous version, this proposal includes an additional $3.3 billion for Israel and a controversial offset to the Internal Revenue Service that was supported by House Republicans and considered a nonstarter by Senate Democrats. is not included.
“The Senate will no longer have any excuses, no matter how misguided, for quickly passing this important support for our allies,” Johnson said in the letter.
The move comes as the Senate this week met President Biden’s $106 billion request that also seeks aid to Ukraine and Israel, while funding new measures to control historic migrant flows at the U.S.-Mexico border. The meeting was held amid expectations that an additional package will be announced and voted on. and the Indo-Pacific region. House Republicans’ surprise announcement to send a standalone Israel funding bill to the Senate leaves both chambers divided, with dueling votes over how to fund border security and divided-government Ukraine .
The proposal specifically does not include funding for Ukraine, which faces significantly reduced support from the House Republican majority. The bill also does not include any border security proposals, as House Republicans insist the Senate take up the bill they passed last year.
A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has been working for months after House Republicans telegraphed that they would not support Biden’s request for an additional package to aid foreign allies unless it included significant changes to the border. , has been working to find a compromise on border security. Negotiations have often waxed and waned, with Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Iri.) They sought to overcome partisan hurdles on how to deal with the changes. Parole system.
Adding urgency to the issue, Biden vowed last month that if Congress passes a bipartisan immigration plan, he would use emergency authorities to “shut down the border,” putting the onus primarily on accepting the Senate deal. It would be imposed on the Republican majority in the House.
Prime Minister Johnson told his colleagues on Saturday that in the two months it took senators to reach an agreement (the details of which have not yet been disclosed), the world had been forced to attack U.S. forces, Syria and Iraq. He said he had witnessed retaliatory attacks on Iranian targets in the United States. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas is the justification for prioritizing the immediate dispatch of foreign aid to the region, leaving open the question of whether to consider a more substantial additional package later.
“The Senate appears poised to finally release the text of a supplemental package after months of closed-door negotiations, but Senate leadership’s exclusion from the House of Representatives leaves them unable to quickly consider any legislation. We recognize that we have eliminated that,” Johnson said. “Given the Senate’s failure to introduce adequate legislation in a timely manner and the dangerous situation Israel currently faces, the House will continue to take the lead.”
The House bill would provide $9.7 billion to replenish Israel’s various missile and defense systems. This will give the country faster access to advanced weapons systems and other defense services through the Foreign Military Financing Program, and will boost production of artillery shells.
Another $7.7 billion will be allocated to replenish U.S. defense stockpiles sent to Israel in response to the Oct. 7 attacks and military operations in the region. An additional $200 million will be used to protect U.S. military personnel and assist in the evacuation of U.S. citizens as needed.
Former President Donald Trump also directed Republicans to vote against any border security measures until after the 2024 presidential election, garnering even stronger support for any proposal in the Senate. Johnson has expressed opposition to the Senate bill, which contains fewer measures than the measures proposed in the House Republicans’ border security bill, known as HR2, given that the document is not yet complete. He did not say whether the proposal would be brought to the floor. Senate negotiators made the announcement.
By forcing the Senate to consider the bill without countervailing, Johnson has placed the onus on Democrats, including the House, to vote against legislation that many people who want to support Israel are likely to support. Become. It would also put House Republicans in a stronger position to telegraph their message before senators accuse them of inaction.
But complicating matters for Mr Johnson is how the far-right wing of his conference will react. They celebrated Johnson’s inaugural bill, which sends aid to Israel and includes cuts to the Internal Revenue Service that Republicans have long demanded. But the House Freedom Caucus has criticized Johnson’s recent strategy to rely on Democrats to pass a funding bill that does not include cuts and to send the bill to the Senate, given the narrow three-seat Republican majority. I’m still against it.
Additionally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that if Prime Minister Johnson introduces the Ukraine aid bill to the House of Representatives, there will be an opportunity to oust former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker. He threatened to use another motion. Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has indicated he will invoke the bad border security bill if Johnson brings it up for a vote.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated that he was “not worried” about the threat of a resignation motion and said the threat would not guide his decisions about governing.
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