Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Friday that President Joe Biden’s request for $105 billion in foreign aid doesn’t stand a chance to pass the Senate in its current form.
The president’s package supposedly included vital support for Israel, but the majority of the funds would go to Ukraine. While Ukraine would receive $60 billion under the aid package, Israel would be sent $14 billion for “sharpen[ing] Israel’s military edge,” to replenish its Iron Dome, and to send a message to Iran that the U.S. stands with Israel.
“President Biden’s slush fund proposal is dead on arrival, just like his budgets. We will not spend, for example, $3.5 billion to address the ‘potential needs of Gazans,’ essentially functioning as a resupply line for Hamas terrorists,” Cotton said in a statement.
Biden sent his $105 billion request to Congress Friday just hours after his Oval Office statement. The House continues to search for a speaker after Republicans’ failed attempts to elect Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats will quickly move to pass Biden’s budget request.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos,” Cotton said. “Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding.”
McConnell (R-KY) gave his support for the aid package but said the Senate “must produce our own supplemental legislation that meets the demonstrated needs of our national security.” He encouraged his colleagues to work quickly as “a number of serious challenges to the U.S. national security require the Senate’s urgent attention.”
John Cornyn of Texas expressed that he supports aid to Ukraine and Israel, but added that “without meaningful and substantive policy changes that will address the #BidenBorderCrisis such aid is in serious jeopardy.” And Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said the funding request from Biden will provide the administration with “more money to fuel its disastrous open-borders resettlement operation” and “worsen the border crisis.”
Cotton promised that Biden’s proposal would be blocked, and Republicans would get to work crafting a better bill.
“The Biden proposal is going nowhere, and Senate Republicans will take the lead on crafting a funding bill that protects Americans and their interests,” he said.
Sen. Tom Cotton says Biden’s ambitious $100 million foreign aid proposal is “dead on arrival.”
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