Heritage Action urges ‘no’ vote on border security, foreign aid package

Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, urges members of Congress to oppose the additional national security package, which includes a bipartisan border deal, foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel, and other foreign policy priorities. I’m calling out.

A procedural vote on the bill, which the Senate is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, will be marked as a “key vote” for lawmakers on the group’s legislative scorecard, putting further pressure on Senate Republicans to go along.

“The Biden administration’s ’emergency’ additional funding request for billions of dollars in deficit spending confuses public support for Israel with false promises of border security for continued spending on the Ukraine conflict and an open southern border.” “This is a disingenuous effort to take advantage of the public,” the group wrote in its important vote notice.

Heritage Action argued that most of the issues addressed in the national security supplement were known months ago and therefore should have been included in the administration’s standard spending requests to Congress.

“With the exception of replenishing defense capabilities for our ally Israel after the deadly terrorist attack by Hamas, which is a truly urgent and unexpected crisis, all other priorities in this supplement are We were fully aware of this at the outset,” the statement said. read.

“By eliminating less important federal programs, this amendment leverages the legitimate “emergency” designation for Israel’s wars to ensure that, rather than funding stated “priorities,” Biden Trying to avoid responsible budgeting for a planned southern border crisis and billions of dollars in deployments. “More unaccountable taxpayer money is flowing into Ukraine.”

Republican support has declined rapidly since the bill text was released on Sunday after months of negotiations. This marks a sharp reversal of the party’s position just a few months ago, when the party refused to accept any additional aid that would not also address the surge of migrants at the southern border.

The border deal includes provisions to raise standards for asylum screening, process applications more quickly, and end the practice known as “catch and release.” The bill also gives the federal government new powers to close the border to most immigrants if border crossings meet certain thresholds, making it easier for immigrants to obtain work permits and reducing immigration court holdovers. The purpose is to eliminate the