House speaker, Mike Johnson, R-La., on the left and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right.
The United States proposed $17.6 billion aid bill for Israel has failed at the first hurdle of getting the vote of the members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Israel aid bill
A source said the white House had been pushing for Congress to accept the Israel aid as part of a larger $118 billion supplemental security package, as well as with a majority of the right-wing members insisting on offsetting the proposed amount by cutting spending.
Earlier this the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, R-La., announced the legislation as he blamed the Senate and White House for the exclusion of the House from holding talks over border policy and the supplemental security package.
The House GOP bill was fast tracked for a vote on Tuesday under suspension of House rules — meaning it would bypass a procedural hurdle known as a rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds of the chamber rather than a simple majority, reported Fox News.
Report said despite 250 lawmakers voting in favour and 180 against it, the bill failed to get the minimum required support in the end.
204 Republicans voted in favour of the bill while 14 voted against it. On the Democrats side, forty-six lawmakers voted in favour of the Israel aid bill whereas 166 voted against it.
One of the House Rep. members, Michelle Steel, R-Calif., blasted lawmakers on both sides for failing to support the bill after the voting.
“It is disappointing and unacceptable that so many Members failed to stand behind Israel as they defend their citizens from terrorists intent to wipe them off the map,” she told the Media.
“We must have absolute moral clarity and resolve…History will remember those who choose to stay silent.
A source said ‘Leaders of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus came out against the bill on Sunday over its lack of offsets’.
According to Fox News, one of Johnson’s first acts as speaker was putting a $14.3 billion Israel aid bill on the House floor, but the funding would have been offset by money Biden allocated to the IRS. The move was dismissed as a “poison pill” and a nonstarter by the Democratically-held Senate.
Israel aid bill tanks with 166 Democrats and 14 Republicans vote not in favour
