Washington DC – The Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid plan faces challenges from House Republicans, but their Democratic allies say it is essential to preserving democracy around the world.
“We are now in an existential moment for global democracy, and either the United States stands up for freedom and democracy around the world, or it retreats into the underworld, where dictators, dictators, and Either we allow terrorists to take over the world,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told Fox News on Tuesday.
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York said the House needs to pass a sweeping foreign aid package to preserve global democracy and stand up to Iran, Russia and China. Republicans have already voiced fierce opposition to the aid package. (Getty Images)
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A bipartisan group of senators passed a supplemental national security package after a lengthy night of deliberations that ended early Tuesday morning. The final vote was 70-29.
Huge foreign aid packages emerge as national debt exceeds $34.2 trillion. The budget includes billions of dollars for Ukraine, Israel and other foreign partners, but also for border security, which Republicans have been pushing for since the White House first called for an additional funding package in October. Clause omitted.
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Republicans also helped repeal an earlier bill that combined foreign aid, increased border staffing and expedited deportations when immigration levels exceed a seven-day rolling average of 5,000 people a day.
Congressman Jamie Raskin told Fox News: “Border security is essentially part of the policies that the fourth administration, Donald Trump, vetoed, and that Trump is trying to push back against Speaker Johnson and the MAGA elements in both houses of Congress. , ordered border security to be abolished.”
If Republicans “really wanted it to be part of the bill and not just some pretty rhetoric, they would have done what the Senate did last week,” the Maryland Democrat added.
House Republicans oppose the Senate’s massive foreign aid package, which does not include spending cuts to offset the $95 billion in costs. Republicans have also lobbied to include border security and immigration measures, including granting work permits to asylum seekers and a standard of 5,000 border crossings a day before expedited deportation procedures begin. He led the charge against an earlier version of the bill that set the bill. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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But Republicans like Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama said they opposed the 5,000-per-day standard.
“What they’re trying to do is create border policies that allow people to continue to enter the country at a rate that, frankly, during the Obama administration, the Secretary of Homeland Security said was unsustainable,” Palmer said. It’s about providing it to us.” “It makes no sense.”
Customs and Border Protection officials told Fox News that the number of daily encounters with migrants in December was more than 12,000, a new record. The surge in migrants has long overwhelmed border towns and is now straining cities across the country.
House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the funding measure, saying it was “silent on the most pressing issues facing our country.”
“Without receiving any changes to border policy from the House of Lords, the House of Commons will have to continue to take its own initiative on these important issues,” Johnson said in a statement late Monday. “America deserves better than what’s going on in the Senate.”
Mr. Raskin suggested that Democrats could use a removal petition if necessary to circumvent Mr. Johnson and bring the package to a House vote.
The Senate’s foreign aid package includes an additional $60 billion to help Kiev fight Russian aggression, as well as $9 billion in aid to civilians in conflict zones such as Ukraine and Gaza. (Ukraine National Police, Associated Press)
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Goldman said the package is aimed at dealing with the United States’ three “increasingly aligned” adversaries: Iran, Russia and China.
The aid package allocates $60 billion in additional funding to Ukraine, bringing total U.S. contributions to the fight against Russian aggression since February 2022 to more than $170 billion. It also includes $14 billion for Israel’s fight against Hamas, equivalent to nearly $5. $1 billion in humanitarian aid will go to allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9 billion to civilians in Ukraine, Gaza, and the West Bank.
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Ramiro Vargas contributed the accompanying video.
