Senate Democrats discussed the prospect of placing conditions on a $14.3 billion Israel military aid package during their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday.
The discussion marks another possible legislative snarl as Congress negotiates a massive defense supplemental President Joe Biden has requested for Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and the southern U.S. border. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., indicated Monday that he’s open to a separate Ukraine aid vote but Republicans are now asking for policy changes on the southern border before passing the supplemental request.
Biden proposed no Israel aid conditions in his supplemental request but called the idea “a worthwhile thought” on Friday.
“But I don’t think if I started off with that we ever would have gotten to where we are today,” he added, referring to a temporary hostages-for-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that began last week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, told reporters after the meeting that he would discuss the idea further with the Biden administration and lawmakers.
“It’s been spoken out in our caucus meeting on many occasions and today there was a meeting with [National Security Adviser] Jake Sullivan on the issue,” said Schumer.
“There are different views on that, and we’re going to have a discussion with the caucus and the administration, but above all we’ve got to pass the four bills,” he added, referring to Biden’s $106 billion defense supplemental request.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters after the caucus meeting that senators discussed equipping Israel to fight Hamas while decreasing civilian casualties in Gaza and ramping up humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave on top of reducing Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“We’re going to do an aid package, but we’re going to put expectations as we would for other countries,” said Kaine.
Source : Defense News
