WASHINGTON – The Republican-majority US House of Representatives has passed a bill to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel amid the Jewish nation’s ongoing war with the Hamas militant group in Gaza.
The bill was passed on Thursday by a 226 to 196 vote, with two Republicans opposing the legislations and 12 Democrats supporting it, reports CNN.
The passage of the bill will however, put the two chambers of Congress at odds as there is bipartisan support for aid to Israel and further aid to Ukraine in the Democrat-led Senate, but in the House, many Republicans have opposed sending more aid to Kiev.
Democrats have raised objections to the House bill as it does not include aid to Ukraine and would enact funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called the Republican legislation a “deeply flawed proposal” which the Senate will not consider.
“The hypocrisy here is that by cutting funding to go after tax cheats, (it) will actually explode the deficit by billions and billions of dollars. What a joke,” CNN quoted Schumer as saying to the media on Thursday night.
“We will work together on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine, competition with the Chinese government and humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the newly-appointed House Speaker, Republican Mike Johnson committed to passing a Ukraine aid package after they deal with Israel.
“Ukraine will come in short order, it will come next… And you’ve heard me say that we want to pair border security with Ukraine… If we’re going to take care of a border in Ukraine, we need to take care of America’s border as well,” he said in reference to the need of stricter border security provisions in the US.
Thursday’s development comes amid the looming November 17 deadline when the government funding is set to expire. -IANS
