The House failed to pass over $17.6 billion in assistance to Israel on Tuesday, dealing a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to derail the Senate’s broad, bipartisan deal that links foreign aid to changes in border and migrant policy.
The bill fell short by a vote of 250-180. It faced strong opposition from various quarters of the lower chamber and required significant bipartisan backing as Republican leaders employed the bill’s suspension, a procedural maneuver that expedites a bill for a vote but mandates two-thirds support for passage.
Lawmakers from both sides have consistently called for increased aid to Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Middle East. However, some House Republicans and Democrats, along with certain Senate members, expressed reservations about the latest proposal.
Many progressives who voted against the bill cited Israel’s continued offensive in Gaza, urging stronger human rights safeguards in the region. Some Democrats opposed the bill in favor of a bipartisan package that also allocates aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, staunch conservatives criticized the bill for lacking a specific provision to cover the billions in aid.
House Democratic leaders criticized the bill in a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday, denouncing it as an effort to “undermine the possibility of a comprehensive bipartisan funding package that addresses America’s national security challenges in the Middle East, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region and throughout the world.”
This isn’t the first time House lawmakers have attempted to pass aid to Israel under contentious circumstances. Last year, the lower chamber approved legislation, mostly along party lines, earmarking $14.3 billion for Israel. However, it included a provision to withdraw funding from the Internal Revenue Service to cover the aid, a move swiftly rejected by Democrats.
Johnson unveiled the latest aid bill for Israel just a day before a bipartisan group of Senators released the text of a deal linking foreign aid, including to Israel and Ukraine, to changes in border and migrant policy. Johnson and House GOP leaders effectively scuttled the four-month-old deal, asserting it fails to adequately address the crisis at the southern border.
The White House, which has endorsed the Senate’s border deal, threatened to veto the House’s Israel bill if it reached Biden’s desk and dismissed it as a “cynical political maneuver.”
“The security of Israel should be sacrosanct, not a political bargaining chip. We strongly oppose this tactic, which does nothing to secure the border, provide assistance to the people of Ukraine defending themselves against Putin’s aggression, and offer humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, supported by Israel’s opening of the access route,” stated White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a weekend statement.
