Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, saying House Speaker Mike Johnson's aid package for Israel is going nowhere, maintained that it's important for House Republicans to work with the Democrat-controlled Senate on a package that incorporates Israel's war with Hamas and the war in Ukraine.
McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs chair, made his remarks in an interview with The Texas Tribune posted Monday.
The Tribune noted that McCaul has pushed for a bipartisan approach to foreign policy in Congress. He has also advocated for support for U.S. allies that are threatened by Russia, China, and Iran.
"The exercise you saw last week may have made some of my base happy, but it's not going to go anywhere," McCaul said. "It's incumbent upon us to work with the Senate to get a package that really incorporates all the threats I see out there.
"I think honestly it was the new speaker's first real big package to go to the floor. I think he wanted to show a unified conference. But at the end of the day, we can't run from this problem, and I do think it's going to be a package linking all of these threats that I outlined together that will eventually come over from the Senate, and then I think the speaker is going to have some big decisions to make."
McCaul added: "I haven't seen the threat landscape quite like this since my father's war, World War II. The world's on fire now. It's not a time you can hide under a rock at home and pretend like these threats aren't going to come to you."
The House's $14.5 billion Israel aid package repurposed funding from President Joe Biden's massive IRS expansion. The bill uses already appropriated Inflation Reduction Act funding for the IRS and redirects it to aid.
Biden is seeking $105 billion in new aid for Ukraine's and Israel's wars, with a majority going to Ukraine. House Republicans don't want to add $105 billion to the budget deficit, seeking to use previously assign funding to offset the impact, but Senate majority Democrats want to keep past funding untouched and add new emergency aid funding.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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