The White House slammed the House GOP’s proposed stand-alone bill for Israel aid ahead of Senate negotiators releasing details on a bill that is expected to include aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, along with border security.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced the proposal in a Dear Colleague letter on Saturday, which would allow for $17 billion in aid to the Jewish State. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the proposal the “latest cynical political maneuver” by House Republicans in a statement on Saturday night.
“For months, the administration has been working with a bipartisan group of Senators on a national security agreement that secures our border and provides support for the people of Ukraine and Israel. Just as legislative text is imminent, the House Republicans come up with their latest cynical political maneuver,” Jean-Pierre said.
“The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game. We strongly oppose this ploy, which does nothing to secure the border, does nothing to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves against Putin’s aggression, and denies humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, the majority of them women and children, which the Israelis supported by opening the access route,” she added.
Jean-Pierre also called on the House GOP to work with their Senate and White House colleagues “in a bipartisan way” on these matters.
“House Republicans should instead work in a bipartisan way, like the administration and Senate are doing, on these pressing national security issues,” Jean-Pierre said on Saturday.
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Johnson defended the bill for Israel aid on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday. He said that the Senate had stalled on the House GOP’s previous Israel and border bills and that now it is “urgent” to give aid to the Jewish State in its war against Hamas.
“The reason we are going to send the new Israel package over is because the time is urgent, and we have to take care of that responsibility,” he said.
