House Republicans rammed through their $14.3 billion emergency aid for Israel package.
While support for Israel is traditionally bipartisan, Democrats were largely aghast over the bill.
Democrats took particular issue with the GOP’s insistence to cut funding for the IRS to pay for the bill.
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House Republicans on Thursday passed their $14.3 billion package for emergency military aid to Israel that controversially cuts funding that Democrats passed to go after tax dodgers that is unlikely to become law.
A dozen Democrats broke with their party given the intense disagreement over how Republicans went about supporting Israel after Hamas’ surprise October 7 terrorist attack. Just two Republicans, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against the bill. The final vote was 226-196 with 11 lawmakers absent.
Traditionally, there is strong bipartisan support for Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill will go nowhere in the Senate. The White House said President Joe Biden would veto the legislation in the unlikely scenario it reaches his desk.
“[R]rather than putting forward a package that strengthens American national security in a bipartisan way, the bill fails to meet the urgency of the moment by deepening our divides and severely eroding historic bipartisan support for Israel’s security,” The Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of formal administration policy.
Some key Democrats announced before the vote that they would oppose the bill while stressing that they still wanted to support Israel.
“I strongly support Israel. I will vote ‘No’ on the Israel supplemental stunt, because it plays politics with Israel’s security with no prospect of actually providing funding to Israel,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.
Rep. Lois Frankel, a Florida Democrat, said during the debate that she was alive because her grandfather “was able to flee Europe as the Nazis took over.” She expressed hope that as the debate continues Congress will be able to come together. Frankel later voted for the bill.
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, who was in Israel visiting family members when Hamas attacked, slammed the GOP for what he deemed “a terrible precedent for the future of Israel.”
“Support may be a political game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle but this is personal for us Jews,” Goldman said. “And it is existential for the one Jewish nation in the world that is a safe haven against the rising tide of antisemitism from across the globe. This is a shameful effort to use Israel and the Jewish people as a political weapon.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson defied Biden and Senate Democrats’ aim to combine aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and border security into a massive $105 billion bill. Republicans further inflamed tensions by insisting that the emergency aid for Israel be offset by cutting spending elsewhere. Despite Republicans’ claims, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said cutting IRS funding would increase the deficit and cost taxpayers billions.
Here are the 12 Democrats who voted for the GOP-led Israel aid bill:
Rep. Angie Craig of MinnesotaRep. Donald Davis of North CarolinaRep. Lois Frankel of FloridaRep. Jared Golden of MaineRep. Josh Gottheimer of New JerseyRep. Greg Landsman of OhioRep. Jared Moskowitz of FloridaRep. Darren Soto of FloridaRep. Haley Stevens of MichiganRep. Juan Vargas of CaliforniaRep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of FloridaRep. Frederica S. Wilson of Florida
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