WASHINGTON, DC – The House of Representatives Thursday evening passed legislation to send $14.3 billion in emergency aid to Israel and cut $14.3 billion from IRS funding, though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the upper chamber will not take the bill up.
The Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act passed by a margin of 226-196, with large Republican support and some Democrat support.
Punch Bowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that a dozen Democrats joined with Republicans to vote for the bill.
The bill would provide Israel with $4 billion for its Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, $3.5 billion for advanced weapons system and other defense services, $1 billion to bolster artillery and critical munitions productions, and $1.2 billion for the Iron Beam for short-range rocket defense, as House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) noted in a release on Thursday. Another $4.4 billion is “to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel.”
It comes weeks after Palestinian terror group Hamas launched its attack on Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis.
“When Biden Democrats show weakness in foreign policy stances, our friends around the world suffer,” Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) said in a statement to Breitbart News ahead of the vote.
“Israel has every right to defend itself from the brutal attacks we have been witnessing over the past month,” he added. “With this piece of legislation, we are helping an ally in need while also cutting funding from Joe Biden’s weaponized IRS. These funds are better used supporting Israel than being used by IRS agents to audit middle class Americans.”
While Republicans applauded the bill’s advancement in the chamber immediately after the vote, Schumer and President Joe Biden, who seeks to bundle aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan together in a $61.4 billion package, have signaled their opposition to the bill.
“Let me be clear: The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal,” Schumer wrote in a tweet hours before the vote Thursday.
“Instead we will work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes funding for aid to Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid including for Gaza, and competition with the Chinese Government,” Schumer said.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration threatened that the president would veto the bill if it made it to his desk.
“If the President were presented with this bill, he would veto it,” the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote in a release.
While the bill slashes funding to the IRS, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted the slashes would add to the national debt over the next decade. IRS revenue was predicted to decrease by nearly $27 billion by 2033 under the bill, adding roughly $12.5 billion to the deficit, according to the CBO.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters
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