As the Senate prepares next week to take up its bill to provide funding for Israel and Ukraine in exchange for comprehensive border reform, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Saturday announced that the House will vote on a standalone measure to provide more than $17 billion in aid to the Middle Eastern country in its war against Hamas.

What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a letter to his Republican colleagues that the House will vote next week on a "clean, standalone" aid bill to Israel

  • Unlike the bill passed by the House last year, a $14.3 billion measure paid for by rescinding IRS enforcement funding won by Democrats in President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, this measure does not contain offsetting spending cuts

  • The bill includes $3.3 billion for U.S. military operations in the region

  • The measure no doubt puts the House on a collision course with the Senate's border and international aid package, which is set for a key test vote next week

  • The White House dismissed the bill as House Republicans' "latest cynical political maneuver" and condemned it for not addressing border security or Ukraine aid

The Louisiana Republican made the announcement in a letter to colleagues on Saturday.

“Given the Senate’s failure to move appropriate legislation in a timely fashion, and the perilous circumstances currently facing Israel, the House will continue to lead,” Johnson wrote in his letter. “Next week, we will take up and pass a clean, standalone Israel supplemental package.”

The measure, unveiled later Saturday by California Rep. Ken Calvert, the Republican chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, includes $4 billion to replenish Israel's Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems and $3.5 billion for the procurement of advanced weapons systems, defense articles, and defense services through the Foreign Military Financing Program. 

It also includes $4.4 billion for the U.S. to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel and $3.3 billion for U.S. military operations in the region.

Johnson introduced last year a $14.3 billion bill to provide aid to Israel, which would have been funded by rescinding IRS enforcement funding won by Democrats in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The House ultimately passed the bill, though the measure stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate; the White House had threatened to veto the measure.

The new bill does not contain offsetting spending cuts. Johnson urged the Senate to take up the measure quickly, adding that the provision removes Democrats' "primary objection" to the bill, which was the rescinding of IRS funding.

"During debate in the House and in numerous subsequent statements, Democrats made clear that their primary objection to the original House bill was with its offsets," Johnson wrote. "The Senate will no longer have excuses, however misguided, against swift passage of this critical support for our ally."

The measure no doubt puts the House on a collision course with the Senate's border and international aid package, which is set for a key test vote next week. It would implement comprehensive new immigration policy in exchange for unlocking billions in funding for Israel in its war against Hamas, Ukraine as it repels Russia's invasion, as well as aid to Indo-Pacific allies, including Taiwan, to counter China's growing influence in the region. Senate negotiators are expected to unveil legislative text for the bill no later than Sunday.

Johnson criticized the Senate measure in his letter, which he has previously said is "dead on arrival" in the Republican-controlled House. Despite initially demanding border policy changes be included in any aid package to Ukraine, Republican support for the measure has dwindled as negotiations have dragged on.

“While the Senate appears poised to finally release text of their supplemental package after months of behind closed doors negotiations, their leadership is aware that by failing to include the House in their negotiations, they have eliminated the ability for swift consideration of any legislation,” Johnson wrote in his letter.

The White House dismissed the bill as House Republicans' "latest cynical political maneuver" and condemned it for not addressing border security or Ukraine aid. 

"For months the administration has been working with a bipartisan group of Senators on a national security agreement that secures our border and provides support for the people of Ukraine and Israel," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday evening. "Just as legislative text is imminent, the House Republicans come up with their latest cynical political maneuver. The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game."

"We strongly oppose this ploy which does nothing to secure the border, does nothing to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves against Putin’s aggression, and denies humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, the majority of them women and children, which the Israelis supported by opening the access route," she continued. "House Republicans should instead work in a bipartisan way, like the administration and Senate are doing, on these pressing national security issues."