The Biden administration and key lawmakers in Congress are actively discussing whether aid to Israel could be linked to more funding for Ukraine as a strategy to pass both spending priorities, according to an administration official and two pro-Ukraine Republican lawmakers.
Lawmakers in both parties who support additional aid for Ukraine have suggested the approach as a potential way to secure funding for Kyiv despite opposition from some Republican members in the House and the Senate.
A group of House conservatives has steadfastly opposed new funding for Ukraine, which the White House has requested, and the issue is sure to be a factor in the GOP conference’s high-stakes leadership elections this week. Additional aid for Israel in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israelis is seen as less likely to face such a struggle in Congress.
Too many people in both the House and the Senate are weighing in on this already and it flies in the face of what the conservative coalition was supposed to be trying to do. We need to be splitting more appropriations bills apart so they can be judged on their own merits and everyone can go on record as to how much and which spending they are supporting. Locking these two aid packages together does precisely the opposite.
This isn’t just a question of which country gets how much aid and when they get it. This is yet another case of the White House and most of the leadership in both parties either failing to read the room or not giving a damn what the public thinks about it. A fresh package of aid for Israel should be a no-brainer and it would have massive public support. But more aid for Ukraine is now opposed by a majority of Americans, at least until there is some accountability in terms of where the money has been going and how much we plan to send in total.
Taking something unpopular and shackling it to something that is generally agreed upon just to make it a “must pass” bill is how we got into this mess in the first place. It also offers these swamp dwellers a far too easy and convenient excuse. ‘Oh, I didn’t really want to rush through the Ukraine money, but I had to! Think of the poor Israelis!”
It’s also worth remembering that before we start talking about funding for Ukraine or Israel, we still have to figure out a way to keep our own government funded and keep the lights on. We’ve got barely a month before the last continuing resolution expires and we still don’t even have a new Speaker seated yet. You would think the GOP might have been able to flip a coin and settle on either Jordan or Scalise by now, but the latest whispers from the rumor mill suggest that’s not the case, at least as of last night. Perhaps the meeting we really need to happen would be between those two. For the good of the party (heck… for the good of the country), one of them could step aside, announce that he’s withdrawing his name, and just call the conference with one choice on the table. Remove the ridiculous one-person vacate rule and just get on with business. The clock is ticking.