President Joe Biden has urged Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the bipartisan national security bill to the floor of the House of Representatives immediately.
“There is no question that if the Senate bill was put on the floor in the House, it would pass. And the Speaker knows that,” he said after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to move forward with the National Security Supplemental.
Biden added, “I call on the Speaker to let the full House speak its mind and not allow a minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on.”
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “It’s time for the Speaker to schedule a vote on this bipartisan package immediately.”
The Senate approved the revised version of the $95.34 billion national security supplemental package by a margin of 70 to 29 votes after excluding the bipartisan border policy changes agreed to by negotiators and border funding.
Senate Republicans indicated they would vote against the Bill if it included border policy provisions.
22 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, crossed party lines to vote in favor of the legislation.
The Bill is unlikely to pass in the House, where the Republicans hold a majority, and the Speaker suggesting that he might block it.
It mainly includes $60.06 billion to support Ukraine; $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel; $2.44 billion to support operations in the U.S. Central Command and address conflict in the Red Sea; and $9.15 billion in humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, and other populations caught in conflict zones.
$4.83 billion is earmarked to support key regional partners in the Indo-Pacific and deter aggression by the Chinese government.
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