Lawmakers intend to grant Israel aid on top of a multi-billion dollar package struck between the nation and the Obama administration, ignoring an agreement Israel made with the United States to refuse any additional funds from Congress for two years.
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham—who would not decrease Congress’s proposed $3.4 billion aid for Israel next year in an appropriations bill, despite pressure from the White House—is leading the charge, bucking the administration’s deal against extra aid with an emergency spending bill.
“I’m going to do a supplemental of $1.5 billion, one percent of what the Iranians are going to get, to help Israel with the increased threats they face from Iran and other bad actors in the region,” Graham, the chairman of a Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign funds, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD on Wednesday. “The idea that [the aid package] becomes a binding number on the Congress is constitutionally flawed thinking.”
The aid in Graham’s bill is paired with an extension of the Iran Sanctions Act, and they will function in tandem as a notice to threatening actors in the region, he said.
“I think it’s in our interest to send a signal to the Ayatollah, the more provocative you are toward our [allies], the more helpful we’re going to be [to them],” Graham told TWS.
A number of Republican lawmakers joined Graham in condemning the Obama administration’s attempt to control congressional appropriations power, and remained open to the possibility of giving Israel extra aid in the future.
“The president is trying to basically dictate what Congress does in terms of its appropriations process,” said Texas senator John Cornyn, the number-two Senate Republican. “He can veto it if he doesn’t like it, but it’s really Congress’s prerogative.”
As for sending additional aid to Israel, he told TWS, “I trust Senator Graham’s judgment.”
Florida senator Marco Rubio, who has joined Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker to introduce a different, renewed version of the Iran Sanctions Act, also condemned attempts to restrict Congress’s appropriations power.
“[The agreement] asks the Israeli government not to come back for more resources,” Rubio told TWS. “I’m not going to criticize the Israeli government—they probably think it’s the best deal they can get out of this administration—but I don’t feel future Congresses are bound by the ability to give even further aid, especially as circumstances change.”
Texas senator Ted Cruz applauded the aid package in a statement Thursday, but defended Congress’s “ability to appropriate additional funds as circumstances merit in the future.”
“No one who negotiated this agreement on either side … has a crystal ball,” the statement read. “The one thing that we can predict with confidence is that the coming years will be filled with unexpected events that will have unanticipated consequences.”
Graham told TWS he expected the idea of extra aid would receive support.
“A lot of members of Congress are going to see the benefit of a supplemental for Israel given what Iran has done and the threats they face,” he said. “There’s a lot of votes in this body for a $1.5 billion appropriation, one percent of what we gave Iran.”
The administration’s 10-year, $38 billion agreement will boost aid to Israel from $3.1 annually to $3.3 billion beginning in 2018, and includes $500 million for missile defense systems. Congress’s marked up appropriations bill proposes a $3.4 billion sum for 2017, with $600 million for missile defense.
