President Joe Biden’s first showdown with the new speaker of the House has already begun.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has rejected Biden’s $106 billion supplemental funding request, which would have tied money for Israel to money for Ukraine, in favor of an Israel-only bill.
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“There are lots of things going on around the world that we have to address, and we will, but right now, what’s happening in Israel takes the immediate attention, and I think we’ve got to separate that and get it through. I believe there’ll be bipartisan support for that, and I’m going to push very hard for it,” Johnson said on Fox News over the weekend.
The split comes as some conservatives in the House have become skeptical of Ukraine funding that doesn’t include a clear end goal for the war, decrying what they describe as a “blank check” policy to date.
However, there are other partisan points at play. Johnson wants to fund $14.3 billion for Israel by cutting a similar amount from the IRS that would have gone to the agency under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Joe Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
AP
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