Congressional paralysis reduces chances of approval of aid package for Ukraine and Israel

US President Joe Biden on October 20 asked Congress to allocate additional funding for military assistance to Ukraine and Israel. The total amount of the request is $105.85 billion, of which $61.4 billion is intended for Kyiv, and $14.3 billion for Tel Aviv. $9.15 billion will be allocated to overcome the humanitarian crisis in conflict zones. The package also includes $13.6 billion to protect the US southern border and combat illegal migration from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In addition, the administration is asking for $7.4 billion to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of these funds are aimed at ensuring Taiwan’s defense capabilities.

Biden’s decision to propose a combined package to Congress was announced by the White House press service, publishing a letter from the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, to the interim Speaker of the House of Representatives, Patrick McHenry. The letter emphasizes that the approval of additional spending items will attract $50 billion of investment into the American military industry.

Biden’s decision caused a mixed reaction among congressmen. The leaders of both parties in the Senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell, said the upper chamber intends to consider the president’s request.

According to Schumer, this will force congressmen in the House of Representatives to coordinate efforts and intensify its work. However, before the combined package can be voted on in the Senate, it must be codified into legislation, which could take several weeks, according to The New York Times.

At the same time, some Republicans in both the House and Senate said they opposed combining aid to Ukraine and Israel. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on her X (formerly Twitter) page that she intends to vote against the president’s initiative: “Americans cannot afford to fund Joe’s foreign wars.”

Ohio Sen. James Vance also criticized the president’s request. “What the president did was absolutely dishonest. If he wants to sell Americans another $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, he should not use dead Israeli children,” the congressman said.

Republicans are also unhappy with the allocation of $850 million for the needs of migrants who arrived in the United States from Mexico. The funds are included in the same Biden project.

According to a CNBC poll (conducted October 11-15), 74% of Americans believe it is important to help Israel. 61% said America should “focus” on helping Ukraine. 52% said the same about Taiwan.

But Congress is still partially paralyzed. The House of Representatives cannot continue to work until a new speaker is elected or additional powers are given to its temporary chairman.

Republican nominee Jim Jordan, after three unsuccessful rounds of voting in the House, was removed from the race after a closed party vote on October 20. On October 21, Republicans did not select a new candidate.

Some of them, according to unconfirmed reports, were ready to support the procedure for transferring powers to the interim speaker. The other, represented mostly by the right wing of the party, on the contrary, opposes this and intends to elect a full-fledged speaker. The idea of ​​giving McHenry additional powers was also supported by some Democrats.

In total, since October 20, according to The New York Times, 10 Republicans have announced their participation in the race for the nomination of a candidate for speaker. On October 23, each of them will be able to present their political vision to the party and answer questions. The potential favorites in the race are Florida Congressman Byron Donalds and party whip Tom Emmer.

The latter’s candidacy, according to Politico, does not suit former US President Donald Trump. But ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was suspended on October 3, spoke up for Emmer.

The situation for Biden may be complicated by further accusations of corruption. On October 20, House Oversight Committee Chairman Republican James Comer said the body had discovered a check for $200,000 written to Joe Biden in 2018 by his younger brother James. The latter received money from Americore Health LLC.

Americore officials claim that Biden’s younger brother, in exchange for large sums of money, promised to “open doors” to the Middle East and attract additional investment for Americore using “his political connections.”

The amount of $200,000 was deposited into James’ personal account on March 1, 2018. On the same day, he transferred the money to older brother Joe Biden and classified the transfer as repayment of a debt. Now, according to Comer, the committee will find out whether Joe Biden could have lent such an amount to his brother and which other relatives of the president are involved in similar schemes.

The US Constitution guarantees the House of Representatives the so-called power of the purse. All financial obligations, including international ones, must be approved by the chamber.

Now the request for funds from Congress looks more like a symbolic gesture on the part of the Biden administration, says political scientist Jan Veselov. “Until the House of Representatives elects a speaker, there can be no talk of allocating new funds,” he emphasized. In addition, the expert believes that even possible support for Biden’s plan from the Senate is unlikely to influence Republicans in the lower house of Congress.

Biden seeks to emphasize that only a minority in the Republican Party is not ready to support Ukraine, and to expose this very minority as political renegades, says Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics. “It is no coincidence that Biden, in his televised address, put Hamas and Russia on the same level, declaring them enemies of democracy. Accordingly, according to Biden’s logic, those who do not support the allocation of money to Ukraine and block the package automatically support Hamas,” the political scientist explained.

Suslov noted that the prospects for the combined package will depend on which Republican becomes speaker. If a right-wing representative wins, Biden will have a difficult time pushing his plan through Congress. If a mainstream Republican becomes the speaker, then the package has a slightly higher chance of being approved, Suslov concluded.