By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch
Lawmakers are sharpening their focus on aid to Israel this week, with Republicans and Democrats weighing a House GOP aid bill as the November government funding deadline creeps close.
House Democrats will face a tough vote this week after Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), unveiled a $14.3 billion Israel aid bill that incorporates offsets from the IRS budget but excludes funding for Ukraine. House Democrats have been vocal about the need to send additional aid to Israel following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on the U.S. ally last month, write The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis. During the three-week Speaker saga, Democrats pushed their Republican colleagues to coalesce around a leader so the House could return to business and send aid to Tel Aviv.
Johnson is set to meet with GOP Senators about the measure today — ahead of a proposed Thursday vote in the House — setting up a tense encounter as House and Senate Republicans remain at odds over assisting Israel and Ukraine ahead of a Nov. 17 deadline to keep the government funded (CNN).
Senate Republicans are battling among themselves over what to do with the House proposal. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, GOP senators want to support Johnson, but moving Israel money without assistance for Ukraine jeopardizes Ukraine’s efforts to win the war against Russia. Getting President Biden’s $105 billion foreign assistance package across the finish line will be a major test of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership. McConnell has repeatedly said the two issues are related. He specifically tied Israel and Ukraine together on Monday in a speech introducing the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. at an event in Louisville (NPR).
This is a moment for swift and decisive action to prevent further loss of life, and to impose real consequences on the tyrants who have terrorized the people of Ukraine and Israel,” McConnell said. “And right now, the Senate has a chance to produce supplemental assistance that will help us do exactly that.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday called the House GOP’s $14.3 billion measure to support Israel “woefully inadequate.” The GOP goal is to challenge the White House and buck a bipartisan approach preferred by the Senate to approve supplemental spending, including for Ukraine. The Senate would add the proposed international assistance to the deficit; the House would seek spending cuts to offset the proposed red ink.
The House strategy creates complications ahead of a fast-approaching Nov. 17 deadline and a potential shutdown. Schumer, complaining about “poison pills” floated by the House, said the House approach includes “no aid to Ukraine, no humanitarian assistance for Gaza, no funding for the Indo-Pacific.”
Politico: Johnson’s Israel bill hasn’t driven a wedge between Schumer and McConnell.
Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought to connect assistance for Ukraine and Israel to U.S. leadership across the globe and to efforts by both Russia and Iran to challenge U.S. friends and allies. The hearing was one of the first public indicators of whether the president will be able to win congressional support for his political strategy on Ukraine. Austin said a failure to approve aid would lead to a less stable world (The Washington Post).
“In both Israel and Ukraine, democracies are fighting ruthless foes who are out to annihilate them. We will not let Hamas or Putin win,” Austin said. “Only firm American leadership can ensure that tyrants and thugs and terrorists worldwide are not emboldened to commit more aggression and more atrocities.”
- The Hill: Anti-war protesters repeatedly interrupted a Tuesday Senate hearing on Israel.
- The Hill: The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jacob “Jack” Lew to be U.S. ambassador to Israel. The vote was 53-43.
- The Hill: Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), 75, announced he won’t seek reelection after 14 terms representing a left-leaning House district that straddles Portland.
- The Hill: The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday said it will “announce its next course of action” in its investigation into Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on or before Nov. 17.
WHILE JOHNSON’S RISE has united the GOP conference, it may alienate moderate voters and imperil the Republican majority — a political opening Democrats are racing to exploit. House Republicans are hailing Johnson as a unifying force for their fractured party, but the Speaker’s unique brand of evangelical conservatism places him at the far right of the GOP spectrum. The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Lillis report that Democrats view him as something else entirely: a conservative “extremist” who reflects the right wing’s control of the GOP just as much of the country is growing weary of congressional polarization.
Prior to his arrival in Washington, Johnson was on the front lines of the conservative legal battles against abortion and gay rights, once warning that the legalization of same-sex marriage would mark the end of American democracy.
“He’s a MAGA extremist,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “He [just] has better manners.”
3 Things to know today
- Biden will meet this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco, the White House announced. A firm date has not been announced; the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit both leaders will attend is scheduled Nov. 11-17.
- United Auto Workers at a Ford plant in Wayne, Mich., today begin voting on ratification of a tentative labor agreement. Union members have until mid-November to complete the rolling process with the automaker.
- A looming shutdown prompts worries about CHIPS funding rollout. The Commerce Department is pushing to get billions of dollars in semiconductor manufacturing and research incentives out the door before the funding deadline.
