Senate Democrats blocked a surprise move by Senate Republicans to force a vote on aid for Israel, funds that Democrats have been using to leverage to get House support for war aid for Ukraine.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, on Tuesday moved for the chamber to proceed to the emergency spending bill when there was no other business on the floor. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia Democrat, called for a quorum call to stall the vote while the rest of his party could discuss what to do next.
Republicans repeatedly asked to end the quorum call to move to the bill, but were met with objections from Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, Washington Democrat.
“The quorum call is right now just freezing the floor of the Senate. My assumption is that Chuck Schumer and Democratic leadership is in their office panicking and trying to figure out what to do next. Their objective is to prevent a vote,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican said.
The Democrat-run Senate eventually voted to table the bid to take up the measure in a 51-48 vote.
“Once again, I had to block a Senate Republicans’ attempt to pit aid for Israel against support for Ukraine and humanitarian assistance,” Ms. Murray wrote on X. “I’ve said this before & I’ll say it again: we cannot just do half our job. It’s not just wrong — it’s dangerous and it’s naïve.”
The bill, which has already passed the Republican-run House, would give $14.3 billion to Israel and pay for the spending by clawing back extra IRS funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, a tax and climate change law that President Biden signed last year.
The House’s bill to aid Israel’s war with Hamas is opposed by Democrats and Mr. Biden, who threatened to veto it.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, called the bill “unserious and woefully inadequate” earlier this month because it didn’t have funding for Ukraine or the Indo-Pacific, humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and “made funding for Israel conditional on hard-right, never-going-to-pass proposals.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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