House GOP passes Israel aid bill offset by IRS funding cuts

The House of Representatives approved sending $14.3 billion in federal aid dollars to Israel in a 226 to 196 vote on Thursday, with 12 Democrats joining Republicans to pass it.

Under the bill brought by House Republicans, that funding will be reallocated from money that was meant for the IRS in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

Just two Republicans voted against the bill — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

Among the Democrats who voted in favor of it are Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla.; and Lois Frankel, D-Fla.

Republicans celebrated the bill’s passage, with Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer, R-Ala., lauding the aid to a major ally and the defunding of Biden’s IRS.

‘Israel has every right defend itself from the brutal attacks we have been witnessing over the past month,’ Palmer told Fox News Digital.

‘With this piece of legislation, we are helping an ally in need while also cutting funding from Joe Biden’s weaponized IRS. These funds are better used supporting Israel than being used by IRS agents to audit middle class Americans,’ he said.

Israel has been in open war with Hamas since last month when militants killed over a thousand Israelis in a surprise attack on villages throughout the southern part of the country. 

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, also highlighted the fact that more than two dozen of those slaughtered were also American citizens. 

‘Hamas terrorists senselessly murdered innocent Americans and Israelis with no remorse whatsoever. As our strongest ally in the Middle East, we must do everything in our power to support Israel and help them completely defeat and destroy Hamas,’ he told Fox News Digital of the bill’s passage.

Military veteran Rep. John James, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital, ‘This assistance is critical to Israel’s efforts to restore peace and stand as a haven of democracy for our Jewish brothers and sisters.’

The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, however, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it a ‘joke’ on Thursday morning.

‘It still mystifies me that at a moment when the world is in crisis, at a time when we need to help Israel respond to Hamas, the House GOP thought it was a good idea to tie Israel aid to a hard right proposal that will raise the deficit and is totally, totally partisan,’ Schumer said. 

Senate leaders have been pushing for an Israel aid package to also include money for Ukraine, which Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said earlier would be in a combined package with U.S. border security measures down the line. 

Biden had asked Congress for $106 billion in supplemental funding for a package that covers Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, the U.S. border and various humanitarian causes. 

The White House on Thursday said that Biden would veto a standalone Israel aid bill if it came to his desk.

The Office of Management and Budget said of the legislation, ‘This bill is bad for Israel, for the Middle East region, and for our own national security.’