Sen. Rick Scott is arguing that President Biden’s massive aid package which includes funds for Israel and Ukraine should be scrapped because it lacks enough bipartisan support, and swapped for separate funding bills so that aid to Israel isn’t delayed any further.
“The Senate needs to vote on aid for Israel now — by itself,” the Florida Republican said in a statement Tuesday. “Everyone in Washington knows that what the president has proposed will never pass in the House. It is unserious and needs to be discarded and moved on from.”
Mr. Scott argued that there is bipartisan support for aid for Israel, but not for Ukraine aid which has been a cause for contention for months.
“There is overwhelming bipartisan support for Israel and we can get an aid package passed in the Senate quickly,” he said. “The same cannot be said about Biden’s asks on Ukraine aid, which is far broader than just lethal aid to defeat Putin, or his horrific idea to give billions to bail out sanctuary cities and push policies that actually make the raging national security crisis on the border even worse.”
Mr. Biden sent Congress a proposed aid package last week of roughly $105 billion. It includes $60 billion for Ukraine, roughly $14 billion for Israel and about $14 billion to help migrants crossing America’s southern border. It also allotted $7.4 billion for Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific and another $10 billion for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.
Mr. Scott said that mixing all the spending only muddies the debate in Congress.
“Americans should be disgusted that President Biden and Washington’s ruling class continue to use crisis after crisis to push massive spending packages for issues that have no business being voted on together,” Mr. Scott said. “Needlessly delaying this action in search of some doomed grand bargain only hurts the United States, our ally Israel and the urgent mission to rescue the Americans being held hostage in Gaza by Iran-backed Hamas.”
It has been 17 days since the terrorist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. More than 4,000 people have died in total in Israel and Gaza, including about 30 U.S. citizens, according to officials.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer has said he would move any legislation for Israel aid quickly.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos,” the New York Democrat said in a statement last week. “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.”
Any legislation that comes Congress’ way is stuck until the House elects a new speaker.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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