Speaker Johnson Says House Will Vote on More Israel Aid This Week

 

It's unclear if the additional aid for Israel will be lumped in with Ukraine aid

by Dave DeCamp April 14, 2024 at 4:54 pm ET 

CategoriesNewsTagsIsrael

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Sunday that he will bring a bill to provide Israel with more military aid to the floor for a vote this week in response to Iran’s attack, which came in retaliation for Israel bombing Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.

“House Republicans and the Republican Party understand the necessity of standing with Israel,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News. “We’re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together. Right now, we’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.”

It’s unclear if he plans to lump the Israeli aid in with spending for Ukraine. The House has yet to vote on a $95 billion foreign military aid bill that passed through the Senate and includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, and a few billion for Taiwan and other spending in the Asia Pacific region.

Johnson previously pushed forward two standalone Israel aid bills to support the slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, but they did not become law. One was for $14 billion that cut funding to the IRS to offset the cost, which passed the House but wasn’t taken up in the Senate. Another bill for $17.6 billion for Israel failed to pass a vote in the House that required a two-thirds majority.

The $17.6 billion failed because Democrats didn’t want to pass it without the Ukraine aid. In the wake of the Iranian retaliation against Israel, a standalone bill would likely find more support in Congress.

The additional military aid the US is looking to provide Israel is on top of the $3.8 billion it gets each year under a 10-year memorandum of understanding that was signed by the Obama administration.

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/14/speaker-johnson-says-house-will-vote-on-more-israel-aid-this-week/