[pjw] NEWS: Senate, not Merkley, votes to fund Israel/Ukraine/Taiwan

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hi
At our Iraq Affinity Group meeting last night I described the Senate's 
efforts to put $60 Billion more in weaponry (etc) to Ukraine and $14 
Billion to Israel's genocide as throwing more tinder on the fire.

While he apparently had no qualms about the Ukraine aide, Oregon Sen. Jeff 
Merkley was one of two Democrats who voted against the bill, which passed 
70-29 and faces an uphill climb in the House-- for the wrong reasons. From 
the Hill article below:

  Twenty-two Republican senators voted to pass the bill, a greater number
  than voted to advance it in any of the earlier procedural votes.

  Two Democrats - Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) - voted
  no, citing deep concerns over supporting Israel Prime Minister Benjamin
  Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza. The measure would provide $14
  billion in security assistance to Israel.

  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also voted against it for the same reason.
  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hailed the bill as a
  declaration that “American leadership will not waver, not falter, not
  fail.”

Special bonus:

  It would also provide $2.4 billion to help the U.S. forces defend against
  Iranian-backed Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Fuel, meet fire.

I also sent this to The Hill just because.

  The article on the Senate package passed this morning cites a Trump tweet
  saying “Radical let” rather than “Radical left.” While he is prone to
  typos I think that one is on The Hill.
  https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/05/border-bill-trump-00139584

OK, that's it for now...
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4464434-senate-passes-ukraine-funding/
Senate passes Ukraine funding in predawn vote
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON AND ARIS FOLLEY - 02/13/24 6:39 AM ET

The Senate voted early Tuesday morning to pass a $95 billion emergency 
defense spending bill, including $60 billion for Ukraine, after an 
all-night filibuster by conservative opponents finally ran out of steam 
shortly after 5 a.m.

The 70-29 vote capped nearly a week of floor debate and four months of 
wrangling over President Biden’s request to fund the war in Ukraine, which 
he submitted to Congress in October.

Weary senators voted on the legislation shortly before sunrise after 
conservatives, led by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), spoke 
through the night to vent their objections to the bill.

But a group of Republicans led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell 
(Ky.) voted with the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats to pass the 
bill.

Twenty-two Republican senators voted to pass the bill, a greater number 
than voted to advance it in any of the earlier procedural votes.

Two Democrats - Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) - voted 
no, citing deep concerns over supporting Israel Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza. The measure would provide $14 
billion in security assistance to Israel.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also voted against it for the same reason.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hailed the bill as a 
declaration that “American leadership will not waver, not falter, not 
fail.”

“Today, we make Vladimir Putin regret the day he questioned America’s 
resolve. Today, we send a clear bipartisan message of resolve to our 
allies in NATO,” he said.

On the other side of the aisle, McConnell withstood a barrage of attacks 
from critics within his conference, such as Lee, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) 
and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), to push long-delayed funding for Ukraine 
through the chamber.

Speaking shortly before the final vote, Lee accused McConnell of keeping 
Republican senators “in the dark” about negotiations over a bipartisan 
border security deal and of rejecting a proposal from some GOP senators to 
link payments to Ukraine to how many migrants cross the border each month.
Sens. Paul, Scott, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson 
(R-Wis.) and JD Vance (R-Ohio) also took to the floor Monday night and 
early Tuesday morning to speak at length against funding Ukraine without 
securing the border.

McConnell warned his GOP colleagues that the Senate would put American 
security and credibility with its allies at risk by failing to pass the 
package.

“I know it’s become quite fashionable in some circles to disregard the 
global interests we have as a global power. To bemoan the responsibility 
of global leadership. To lament the commitment that has underpinned the 
longest drought of great power conflict in human history,” he said in a 
powerful floor speech Sunday, referring to the growing influence of 
isolationists within the Republican Party.

“This is idle work for idle minds. And it has no place in the United 
States Senate,” he said in a rebuke of Republican colleagues who threw up 
all sorts of procedural obstacles to derail the bill.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was even more pointed in his criticism of 
Republicans who led the effort to block the bill.

“I know that shock jocks and online instigators have riled up many in the 
far reaches of my party, but if your position is being cheered by Vladimir 
Putin, it’s time to reconsider your position,” he said on the floor.

In addition to military and economic aid to Ukraine and Israel, the 
measure will provide $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, the West 
Bank and Ukraine, and $4.8 billion to deter Chinese aggression in the 
Indo-Pacific.

It would also provide $2.4 billion to help the U.S. forces defend against 
Iranian-backed Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The package includes the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which would require Biden 
to sanction transnational criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl and 
allow the use of proceeds from property seized from traffickers to fund 
law enforcement operations.

The legislation now heads to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) 
is threatening to keep it from reaching the floor for a vote.

Johnson criticized the Senate bill Monday night for staying “silent on the 
most pressing issue facing our country,” the surge of migrants from around 
the world across the southern border.

“In the absence of having received any single border policy change from 
the Senate, the House will continue to work its own will on these 
important matters. America deserves better than the status quo,” he said 
in a statement issued shortly before the Senate took three procedural 
votes to advance the legislation.

Senators, however, said they hope the strong bipartisan Senate vote will 
give the measure momentum in the House, predicting it would pass the lower 
chamber easily if Johnson puts it on the floor.

“I believe that if this bill is brought to the House floor, it will pass 
with strong bipartisan support,” Schumer said.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said he didn’t think Johnson’s statement “changes 
much of anything,” telling reporters it “seemed consistent with all of his 
previous statements but preceded what could be a fairly healthy vote of 
support.”

Schmitt, speaking on the floor at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, however, 
predicted the Senate bill isn’t going anywhere in the House.
“It’s dead in the House,” he declared.

The Senate’s emergency defense funding package was delayed for months 
while negotiators tried to hash out a compromise on new funding and policy 
reforms to tighten border security — something Johnson insisted on when he 
met with Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House last 
month.

Senate negotiators finally unveiled their bipartisan border deal Feb. 4 
but it met with a strong backlash from Republican senators.

Former President Trump called it a “Death Wish for the Republican Party” 
and said “only a fool, or a Radical Let Democrat” would vote for it.

The uproar grew so loud that McConnell and other Republicans abandoned the 
border security deal they had initially backed.

A vote to advance the emergency defense spending package with asylum 
reform and $20 billion in new funding to hire more personnel, equipment 
and operational capability to secure the border failed by a mostly 
party-line vote Feb. 7.

Only four Republicans voted for the package with the border deal: Sen. 
James Lankford (Okla.), who was the lead GOP negotiator who put it 
together, Romney, and Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski 
(Alaska).

Johnson on Monday said senators “did the right thing” to reject it, 
calling the border provisions “insufficient.”

He said they “should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the 
current bill to include real border security provision that would actually 
help end the ongoing catastrophe.”

That prompted an exasperated response from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), 
the lead Senate Democratic negotiator, who worked with Lankford over 
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day to produce a deal.

“He said it needs that border in it. How about that?” Murphy said 
sarcastically. “So it’s funny. There was a bipartisan border deal that he 
helped kill.”

“It’s interesting that he would now say that there’s something missing in 
the bill. To the extent that there’s a border provision missing from the 
bill, it’s because Speaker Johnson helped kill it,” Murphy said.