White House calls House Republicans’ $17.6 billion Israel aid bill a ‘cynical political ploy’

The White House on Saturday criticized House Republicans as a “cynical political maneuver” for announcing a $17.6 billion bill to provide additional aid to Israel, which is at war in the Middle East.

The administration has particularly criticized the bill, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) saying it would be voted on in the House next week, leaving only aid to one U.S. ally as the Senate negotiates a bipartisan border and aid package. He despised the Republican senator who took up the matter. .

“For months, the administration has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on national security agreements to secure the border and provide assistance to the peoples of Ukraine and Israel,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday. “I have been working on it,” he said. “With enactment on the horizon, House Republicans have come up with their latest cynical political ploy. Israel’s security should be sacrosanct, not a political game.”

The statement comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a “clean and independent” aid bill for Israel earlier Saturday.

The new bill, which Johnson called a “clean and independent” bill, would go against developments in the Senate as the Senate continues to negotiate a bipartisan bill. The text has not been published yet, but is expected to be released this weekend.

The $17.6 billion bill was introduced after the House of Representatives passed a $14.3 billion aid package for Israel last November, along with cuts to IRS funding. It passed in the House by a vote of 226 to 196, but has not been considered in the Senate.

The White House renewed its call on House Republicans to work with the administration and the Senate to pass a national security bill that includes funding for Ukraine, a priority of President Biden.

“We have done nothing to secure our borders, we have done nothing to protect the Ukrainian people from Putin’s aggression, and we have done nothing to protect Palestinian civilians, the majority of them women and children. We strongly oppose this maneuver to deny humanitarian aid, which the Palestinians supported by opening their borders to “access routes,” Jean-Pierre wrote. “House Republicans should instead work on these pressing national security issues in a bipartisan manner, just as the administration and the Senate are doing.”

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that if reports about the potential terms of the deal were true, it would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Commons.