A pair of Republican lawmakers called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to consider another Israel aid bill amid faltering negotiations to marry border policy with President Biden’s emergency funding request.
The ongoing Senate negotiations to tie border security policy to Mr. Biden’s $110 billion spending request, which includes billions in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, have been mired by growing divisions in the GOP.
Rep. Kevin Hern, Oklahoma Republican, and Sen. J.D. Vance, Ohio Republican, urged that it was time to call it quits on the struggling negotiations, arguing that attempts to tie border security with Ukraine aid, which is increasingly unpopular with Republicans, was dividing the GOP.
Details of the deal have drawn criticism from Mr. Johnson, who says the pact would do little to curb the flow of illegal migrants at the U.S./Mexico border.
The Hern-Vance duo called the ongoing negotiations a “complete policy failure” and encouraged Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, to consider another swing at a standalone Israel funding bill.
“We commend the speaker for standing firm against this bad border deal and urge him to put a clean, un-offset Israel bill on the floor of the House immediately,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Let’s put an end to House and Senate Democrats’ political games on Israel.”
The GOP-led House passed a $14 billion Israel aid package in October, but the legislation has not moved an inch since then.
One of the issues that the White House and other Democrats had with the prior standalone package is that it pulled from the IRS’ $80 billion funding pool, with the Congressional Budget Office warning that doing so would add $12 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s border deal is on life support with little chance of passing the GOP-led House. Republicans in the lower chamber say the package must include the Secure the Border Act, which revives Trump-era border policies like Remain in Mexico.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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