Schumer: House GOP’s Israel package is ‘woefully inadequate’ 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday blasted a House Republican proposal to provide $14.3 billion for Israel without any money for Ukraine, and to pay for it by cutting the IRS’s budget, as “woefully inadequate” and full of “poison pills.”  

“I’m deeply troubled that yesterday House Republicans released a partisan and woefully inadequate package with no aid to Ukraine, no humanitarian assistance for Gaza, no funding for the Indo-Pacific,” he said on the Senate floor.  

He said the bill would reward “tax cheats” and, by doing so, “makes it much, much harder to pass aid for Israel.” 

“It’s insulting that the hard right is trying to exploit the crisis in Israel to try to reward the ultra rich. The new Speaker knows perfectly well if you want to help Israel, you can’t propose legislation that is full of poison pill and this partisan legislation sends the wrong message to our allies around the world,” he said.  

Schumer said it seems as “if the real goal of this GOP package is not to help Israel but to get tax relief for the super wealthy while leaving out Ukraine aid.”  

He said the House’s bill is “clearly designed to divide Congress on a partisan basis, not unite it.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday reiterated his argument that money for Israel and Ukraine should be tied together, along with funding to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific and resources to bolster border security.  

“The threats facing America and our allies are serious and they’re intertwined. If we ignore that fact, we do so at our own peril,” McConnell warned on the floor.  

The GOP leader argued that a large emergency foreign aid package would boost defense spending and make up for what he called the Biden administration’s failure to fully recognize growing national security threats.

“Our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee now have a chance to provide critical resources that our military and defense industrial base need to keep pace with growing threats,” he said.