New House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday to try and sell them on the House GOP’s $14.3 billion Israel aid bill — which is funded by rescinding IRS enforcement funding won by Democrats in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and contains no funding for Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion.
The bill puts Johnson and House Republicans on a collision course with Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the White House, which formally threatened to veto the bill on Tuesday night.
In a statement, the Biden administration accused the House Republican majority of inserting “partisanship into support for Israel, making our ally a pawn in our politics” and bemoaned the fact that it does not address humanitarian needs for Palestinians, as well as the border security funding and Indo-Pacific aid outlined in President Biden’s $106 billion request.
“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 statement from the White House Office of Management and Budget reads. “It inserts partisanship into support for Israel, making our ally a pawn in our politics, at a moment we must stand together. It denies humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations around the world, including Palestinian civilians, which is a moral and strategic imperative. And by requiring offsets for this critical security assistance, it sets a new and dangerous precedent by conditioning assistance for Israel, further politicizing our support and treating one ally differently from others.”
“This bill is bad for Israel, for the Middle East region, and for our own national security,” the statement continues.
Since he was elected speaker last week, Johnson has repeatedly stated his desire to “bifurcate” aid for Israel from assistance to Ukraine. House Republican leadership is eyeing a Thursday vote on the standalone bill, though two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. — have indicated that they will not support new aid to Israel, narrowing the bill’s prospects of passage if Democrats oppose it.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Johnson said: “I understand [Democrats’] priority is to bulk up the IRS, but I think if you put this to the American people and they weigh the two needs, I think they’re going to say standing with Israel and protecting the innocent over there is in our national interest and is a more immediate need than IRS agents.”
But President Biden and Leader McConnell, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Democratic conference, are in rare alignment on this issue, saying that the issues should not be separated.
“Politicizing our national security interests is a nonstarter,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “Demanding offsets for meeting core national security needs of the United States—like supporting Israel and defending Ukraine from atrocities and Russian imperialism—would be a break with the normal, bipartisan process and could have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”
Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Majority Leader Schumer made the case that by seeking to cut IRS funding, Republicans are making assistance to Israel “contingent on poison pills that reward rich tax cheats.”
“I am deeply troubled that yesterday, House Republicans released a partisan and woefully inadequate package with no aid to Ukraine, no humanitarian assistance for Gaza, no funding for the Indo-Pacific and in addition, poison pills that increase the deficit and help wealthy tax cheats avoid paying their fair share,” he added.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that the House bill is “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.
“We face a set of urgent and interrelated national security priorities, and we cannot do half the job. We’ve got to address all of them in a serious, bipartisan way—in one package,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
McConnell acknowledged Tuesday that he’s “conceptually” on board with what the administration and Senate Democrats are asking for in terms of the sweeping international aid package, but warned that his counterparts in the majority “will have to accept a really serious U.S.-Mexico border protection bill in order to get our people on board for a comprehensive approach.”
"It's not acceptable to abandon Ukraine," Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said. "There may be an effort on the part of a small, vocal minority to wag the dog, if you will, but that's not going to happen I believe.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a vociferous supporter of both Israel and Ukraine, said to his House counterparts that he understands that “we need to start paying for things around here, I get that, but added: “This is truly an emergency, and I don't think we've ever offset emergency aid before.”
While Graham did express that he's open to sending Israel aid separately, "at the end of the day, all of those things have to be done for me," including Ukraine aid and border security. "Not some of them, but all of them."
But not all Republicans are on board with their leader's plan, with some saying they should follow the House's lead and pass an Israel aid bill first. Some members of McConnell's conference, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have apparently agreed with Johnson’s desire to “bifurcate” the issues of Israel and Ukraine aid, proposing their own version of a standalone aid package to the Middle Eastern country in its war against Hamas.
"Israel first, I think that’s the right thing to do," said Florida Sen. Rick Scott. "We have a majority in the House, we should follow what they’re doing."
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called it a "mistake" for McConnell to support a larger aid bill, adding: "I think it's notable that he's standing with Schumer over against the Republicans.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul agreed with Hawley's "mistake" comment, saying he believes McConnell is "wrong" and "attempting to" undercut Speaker Johnson, adding: "It's also in defiance of most conservatives in the Republican Party, so I think McConnell’s position is very, very unpopular both in Kentucky but also very very unpopular across the United States, and I think ultimately will fail or bring down the speaker, which I don't think is a good idea."
Johnson told Senate Republicans in the meeting that the House's next priority will be a Ukraine aid bill coupled with border security provisions. Sen. Hawley told reporters that Johnson's message was that they "want to take up Ukraine" and that the combined bill would be their "next order of business" after handling assistance to Israel.
Meanwhile, groups warned that rescinding IRS enforcement to pay for the Israel aid bill would actually expand the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office said that rescinding IRS funding will actually end up costing the government $12.5 billion due to lost tax revenues.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — a nonprofit aimed at addressing federal fiscal and budget issues — celebrated the prospect of offsetting new emergency spending, but said that “paying for new spending by defunding tax enforcement is worse than not paying for it at all.”
“Instead of costing $14 billion, the House bill will add upward of $30 billion to the debt. Instead of avoiding new borrowing, this plan doubles down on it,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in a statement. “Funding the IRS to reduce the tax gap has a long history of bipartisan support and has been proposed by every President from Reagan through Biden. It is one of the few ways to raise revenue without raising taxes.
“Getting into the habit of offsetting the costs of new spending and tax cuts is critical given our fiscal situation,” MacGuineas added. “But you can’t pay for borrowing with more borrowing.”