U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing) joined most of her fellow Democrats in voting against the “Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act,” which cleared the House Thursday by a vote of 226-196; she called it a “flawed supplemental spending bill for Israel security.”
Two Republicans opposed the bill, and 12 Democrats supported it.
President Joe Biden, who has said he would veto the bill if it reaches his desk, had requested Congress pass a broad national security funding bill that included money for Ukraine and U.S. border security. Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson put forward a bill that included only assistance for Israel, and required that funding allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act for the Internal Revenue Service be pulled back.
In a statement, Slotkin said she is waiting for the Senate’s emergency aid bill, which she hopes is sent to the House as soon as possible.
“Unfortunately, the House bill misses an opportunity for the majority, with a new Speaker, to demonstrate bipartisan unity in the face of overlapping crises abroad,” Slotkin said, “and at a time when U.S. forces in the region have been subjected to almost 30 attacks.”
Slotkin said that as someone who has spent much of their career in national security, she voted against the bill for three reasons:
• For the first time in history, the bill requires domestic spending cuts to fund emergency response abroad.
“Requiring such cuts in response to an emergency request is unprecedented,” Slotkin said. “And in this case, the majority’s stated goal of making the bill budget-neutral is deeply undercut by the fact that the cuts actually increase the deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
• The bill does not provide funds to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which Slotkin said should be a “strategic priority for the U.S. and Israel.”
• The bill also leaves two other critical partners — Ukraine and Taiwan — on their own to “face challenges that are important to our own security.”
“For all these reasons,” Slotkin said, “this bill falls short.”
“The Senate should send us a strong emergency spending bill as soon as possible, and the Speaker should bring that bill to the floor for a vote,” she said. “All signs point to it having strong, bipartisan support — the message we should be sending as crises roil around the world.”
