- The House of Representatives approved a bill to provide military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza.
- It is part of a package that includes aid to Ukraine and is likely to be approved by the Senate next week.
- Dozens of progressive Democrats — and some hard-right Republicans — voted against it.
The House of Representatives on Saturday approved a bill that includes more than $14 billion in military aid to Israel and more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid, most of which will go to Gaza.
The bill was approved by a vote of 366 to 58, but dozens of progressive Democrats — and a group of hard-right Republicans — voted against it.
Under an unorthodox plan from House Speaker Mike Johnson, the bill would be sent to the Senate as part of a package that includes aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and a third bill that would force the sale of TikTok and allow the United States to seize Russian assets. Lawmakers voted individually on each component.
The combined bill closely mirrors the $95.3 billion national security bill the Senate passed in February. Three senators voted against this package regarding aid to Israel.
President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the bill into law after its passage in the Senate in the coming days, a move that could anger the progressive left, which has called on it to take a different approach to the Israeli war in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people live. Palestinians have been killed.
This is not the first time in recent months that Democrats have voted en masse against Israeli aid. They have become more comfortable doing so amid the devastation in Gaza.
In November, all but 12 of them voted against a bill that would have tied Israeli aid to cuts to the Internal Revenue Service, which was unacceptable to Democrats. In February, only 46 Democrats voted for an Israel aid bill that did not include those cuts, with Democrats largely taking the position that they wanted to see aid to Ukraine paired with aid to Israel.
Fourteen Republican members of the House of Representatives voted against the latest aid bill for Israel last February, with many of them citing the cost of the aid.
But Saturday's vote was different — this bill is certain to be signed into law, and the large number of Democrats who voted against Israeli aid shows how quickly the issue has shifted in recent months.
“Giving the Netanyahu government more offensive weapons at this point is tantamount to condoning the complete destruction of Gaza we have witnessed over the past seven months and risks fueling a deadly regional war,” said Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, a progressive Jewish Democrat. This was stated in a statement prior to the vote. He added: “The United States cannot continue to support an extremist attack that has caused unimaginable suffering to the Palestinian people.”
Here are the 21 Republicans who voted against the bill:
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Andy Biggs from Arizona
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Lauren Boebert from Colorado
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Tim Burchett from Tennessee
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Andrew Clyde from Georgia
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Eli Crane from Arizona
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Warren Davidson of Ohio
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Scott Desjarlais from Tennessee
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Matt Gaetz from Florida
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Bob Good from Virginia
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Paul Gosar from Arizona
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Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia
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Andy Harris from Maryland
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Thomas Massey of Kentucky
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Corey Mills Florida
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Troy Niles from Texas
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Ralph Norman of South Carolina
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Scott Perry from Pennsylvania
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Matt Rosendale from Montana
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Chip Roy from Texas
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Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin
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Ryan Zinke from Montana
Here are the 37 Democrats who voted against the bill:
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Becca Balint from Vermont
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Don Baer from Virginia
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Earl Blumenauer of Oregon
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Jamal Bowman from New York
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Cori Bush from Missouri
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Andre Carson of Indiana
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Greg Casar from Texas
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Joaquin Castro from Texas
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Judy Chu from California
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Mark DeSaulnier from California
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Lloyd Doggett of Texas
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Maxwell Frost from Florida
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John Garamendi from California
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Chuy Garcia from Illinois
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Al Green is from Texas
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Jonathan Jackson from Illinois
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Pramila Jayapal in Washington
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Hank Johnson from Georgia
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Ro Khanna from California
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Dan Kildee from Michigan
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Barbara Lee from California
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Summer Lee from Pennsylvania
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Jim McGovern from Massachusetts
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York
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Ilhan Omar from Minnesota
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Chili Pingree is from Maine
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Mark Pocan from Wisconsin
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Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts
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Delia Ramirez from Illinois
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Jimmy Raskin from Maryland
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Mark Takano from California
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Benny Thompson from Mississippi
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Rashida Tlaib from Michigan
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Jill Tokuda from Hawaii
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Nydia Velasquez in New York
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Maxine Waters from California
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Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey
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